You may not have heard about it, but a boatload of Sri Lankan Tamils recently arrived in Canada. The Washington Post published an article quoting a former State Dept. official who advocated summarily sending them all back to Sri Lanka. I objected to that and wrote a letter to the editor published in the Post. Well, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the U.S. didn’t like my letter and issued a statement in which he says he “refuted” my claims. I didn’t appreciate that and have sent him an open letter in response. As I said in my letter, I do hope Amnesty International and the Sri Lankan government can move toward a constructive dialogue. I’m willing to do my part.
Do Sri Lankan Asylum-Seekers Deserve Hearings?
August 25, 2010 at 7:39 PM
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra…
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra…
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
Every day the Tamils face disappearances, rapes, imprisonment without trial and in a good outcome in hospital like the 68 blind man in an example below
———
Dramatic increase of white van abductions And threats by unknown armed men.
The notorious white van abductions and threats by unknown armed men have been noticeably increased in the last few months.
Mr. S. Periyathambi, age 68 of Jaffna, is said to have been assaulted by unknown armed men who raided his house on 30th July 2010. The armed men demanded the family to handover the information of the whereabouts of their sons.
When, Mr. S. Periyathambi who is partially blind attempted to stop them from forcing their way into the house, he was punched on his face and pushed against the wall.
After seizing some photographs and other document from the house, they left the house, threatening the family to be killed if they maintain any contact with their sons. Mr. S. Periyathambi was admitted in Jaffna with severe injuries.
In June 2010, it was reported that Mr. A. Rajaratnam of Vavuniya passed away in heart attack following the death threat issued by unknown armed men who raided into his house.
Regardless of this tragedy the armed men continue to harass his family and Mrs. T. Anantharani has appealed to the Human rights commission to protect the family.
Another similar incident was brought to the attention of the Human rights commission in Colombo on 19th August 2010. Mr. K. Thavakumar had been approached twice by the armed men and demanded to handover his son.
Although this incident was brought to the attention of the police, no action was taken.
The silence of the police leads to the suspicion that these armed men could be associated to the police.
TAMIL REFUGEES SYMPTOM OF INTERNATIONAL FAILURE IN SRI LANKA
OTTAWA – The arrival of the 490 Tamil boat people seeking refuge in Canada is a symptom of the continued humanitarian suffering in Sri Lanka. It’s time for the government of Canada to rally international efforts to pressure the Sri Lankan government improve living conditions on the ground, say New Democrats.
“After the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, Minister Cannon simply moved on from the file and failed to maintain international attention on the plight of Tamils,” said New Democrat Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre). “Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of displaced people continued to be targeted for brutal human rights violations in government-run camps in unhealthy and unsafe conditions and without access to international aid agencies.”
“What motivated these people to take such a dangerous journey is the violence, insecurity, mass detention and human rights violations that have been widely reported by independent observers,” said New Democrat Immigration and Citizenship Critic Olivia Chow. “The best way to prevent others from having to make similar journeys in the future is to work on ending the humanitarian suffering in Sri Lanka”.
With the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, New Democrats urged the Conservative government to take the lead with the international community to help rebuild the country. Specially ensuring the protection of all civilians, full access for humanitarian workers and media, and initiate internationally mediated efforts aimed at achieving a durable political solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. Dewar points if these measures would have been put in place last year these migrants might not have taken such a drastic step in trying to arrive in Canada.
“Canada missed an opportunity in post-conflict Sri Lanka for leadership in reconciliation, justice, and institution building to ensure that peace and stability are equitable and sustainable,” said Dewar. “The Conservatives should stop blaming the victims of the conflict who are now seeking asylum in Canada and instead rally the international community around improving the conditions on the ground in Sri Lanka.”
Michael Ignatieff: lower the rhetoric on Tamil migrants
Opposition leader warns against over-reacting
Canadians need to stand back and take a deep breath when it comes to the discussion around the almost 500 migrants who arrived on our soil a little over a week ago. That’s the advice federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff doled out during a live interview with News1130 at the PNE on Saturday.
Ignatieff says the government is trying to scare Canadians by telling them terrorists were on board the MV Sun Sea. The Liberal leader says we should put our faith in the refugee system to weed out those who don’t deserve asylum in Canada. “Let’s just lower that rhetoric here. Let’s lower the temperature. Give our officials a chance to sort out who’s who. And also never forget that this country has been a home to refugees, and I think it should remain so.”
Ignatieff’s father sought refuge in Canada, after escaping Communist Russia. He says that’s why he believes every person on the ship deserves a fair hearing.
Sri Lanka ambassador’s ”Refugee claims” absurd,
‘No point in slamming Tamils who fled Lanka’
Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, has claimed that the arrival of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea is a ‘human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.’ Wagiswara’s claims ‘would be offensive, if they were not so absurd,’ said Robert Oberst, professor of political science, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and an expert on Sri Lanka.
•“The Director of Rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu has said that the 103,000 Tamil refugees in India are reluctant to return to Sri Lanka because of the problems that Wagiswara states do not exist. They choose to remain in the camps or as non-camp refugees,”
•“She doesn’t mention that the country is still under war time emergency provisions, which allows unlimited detention without court hearings for Tamils,”
•“Nor does she mention that the country has taken a large percentage of Tamil land in the Northern Province for military bases, forcing farmers to struggle to survive,”
•Oberst added that if Wagiswara wanted to silence critics, ‘she would be better served to persuade her government to allow outside independent observers into the Tamil areas to report on the conditions rather than to slander and attack those who question her government.’
•“The Lankan government has created this situation by prohibiting outsiders and reporters from traveling and meeting freely with Tamils in the North,”
•“They have also viciously attacked critics. If you question the conditions that these people are fleeing from, you are called a supporter of organised crime as Wagiswara has done, or a terrorist as Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has done,”
•“A nation state that does not do these things has nothing to hide,” Oberst concluded.
No education for the 60 000 Tamil Children in the North – and excuse is to rebuild the schools yet all good buildings are occupied by the Sri Lanka Army .
Also luxury apartments for 12 000 Sinhalese families or 50 000 Sinhalese is build.
Plenty of money for the Sinhalese Army and none for the Tamil children !!
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE might work within Sri Lanka, it will not work so well out of Sri Lanka, where those adjudicating these claims and counter claims are not under Sri Lankan government influence.
Further, government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE suspects at a high rate in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks.
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
In a similar incident in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
It would be comforting to believe Canada is immune from this creeping xenophobia. Yet we saw it after a ship arrived in B.C. earlier this month with almost 500 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka. “Victoria residents angry at arrival of Tamil refugees,” brayed a Vancouver headline. In the story, Liberal MP Keith Martin said his office had been flooded with callers who were “angry because they don’t want the Tamil people to be let into Canada and they don’t want them drawing from our social services.”
Sound familiar? Those callers use the same fearful rhetoric — ” they’ll take what’s ours” — that U.S. politicians employed to get their nutty anti-Hispanic laws off the ground.
Instead of calling for a more tempered response, the Harper Conservatives have fed Canadians’ fears of the unknown. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the boat contained “suspected human smugglers and terrorists.” That’s scary stuff, no doubt about it — and while there may be a degree of truth in those comments, it’s far from the whole story.
The migrants came from Sri Lanka, a country reeling from the Tamil
war. According to Amnesty International the Sri Lankan government broke international humanitarian law throughout. Tamil people living in Sri Lanka still face “enforced disappearances” and torture. Human rights advocates and journalists are “killed, assaulted, threatened and jailed.”
Anti-immigrant types hate to be reminded that white North Americans are either immigrants, or descended from immigrants. It makes their hysterical arguments look ridiculous. But go back far enough and we’re all outsiders. This fact, not xenophobia, should guide Canada as we face the complex challenge of handling modern asylum seekers
Sexual abuse of resettled women in Vanni by SLA soldiers
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni continue to sexually abuse women among recently resettled civilians. Meanwhile, a journalist from Tamil Nadu who returned Friday from a visit to Vanni also said that the resettled people in Vanni had told him about SLA soldiers sexually abusing women besides intruding into their privacy under the pretext of search and checking.
The Tamil Nadu journalist also said how he was able to see in person the difficulties and suffering the resettled people in Vanni have to undergo contrary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s publicity campaign on the success of his resettlement projects in Vanni.
Meanwhile, the Christian priests said that women are the most victimized as most of them have to look after their families as their husbands or males in the families had been either killed in the war or taken as prisoners by SLA.
SLA soldiers enter the temporary dwellings of these women when they go on morning patrol and sometimes create opportunities to intrude into their privacy in the name of sudden checks and.
Young women are forced to remain in their huts as SLA soldiers harass them while going past the SLA sentry posts besides attempting to abuse them sexually.
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra…
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra…
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra…
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
So we start something again before Jim MD could answer my question on the previous post.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+Congress+c…
Check this link and the comments the Canadians have made on how they feel about the situation. I will, in due course provide some more wonderful links from Canadian press it self, sharing views of Canadians of how they feel about the situation.
Why does JIM MD want to ask the world about the situation in Canada ??? What's important is how the Canadians feel about Apes and Worms invading their countries and feasting their backyards ?? Get their feedback Jim !! Ask them how they feel !!!
Jim also seems to take this issue personally and try to make it look like an issue of the Tamils. I have my doubts on his affiliation to Terrorist LTTE remaining pussies than for any Tamil. If a Tamil brother or Sister wants to migrate or visit Canada legally, they could do so without an issue with the blessings of both governments of Sri Lanka and Canada. So many people do go the right / legal way – If you visit the Canadian embassy of SL at Gregories road, you will see that there are plenty and more who legally apply and visit Canada. Why take a boat ????? – It is because they have other motives – it is proven Human Trafficking – Which assylum seeker pays USD 50,000 to get on board ??
Jim !!!!!
1. Can you please elucidate us on who steered the Ship (The captain of the ship) and what was his affiliation with the LTTE ??
2. How much did each person had to pay to get in to the ship ??
3. Where did they start their journey from ?
4. How many Sri Lankans are there, How many Indians, Thai and Paki's are there seeking asylum from Sri Lanka ??
Jim !!!
If you can answer the above questions, you your self will figure out that you are turning Amnesty International in to an organization that supports Human Trafficking, Smuggling and engage in other illegal activities !!
NOT GOOD FOR AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSE TO LOOK AFTER THE INTEREST OF HUMANS !!!
Who is going to look after the rights of the Canadian citizen when HR organizations feast their backyards with terrorist Apes and Worms ??
Why Tamils escape sri lanka, evevn though it is risk again
Five Sri Lankans lost amid big sharks http://www.smh.com.au/national/five-sri-lankans-l…
Hell or High Water http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s28149…
As many as 40,000 civilians could have been killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to someone with detailed knowledge of the conflict – the former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss. Mr Weiss has resigned from the UN after 14 years and returned home to Australia. He’s now free to speak openly about the situation in Sri Lanka, for the first time and does so candidly and unflinchingly in Foreign Correspondent’s return program.
He tells reporter Eric Campbell that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians died during the final desperate battles last year, of one of the world’s longest running and bloodiest civil wars.
“About 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area of territory about the size of Central Park in New York,” says Weiss. “They were within range of all the armaments that were being used, small and large, being used to smash the Tamil Tiger lines … the end result was that many thousands lost their lives.”
Seeking justice in Sri Lanka http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Seeking-jus…
Sri Lanka's bloody 25-year-long civil war ended violently in May 2009. However, Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government's iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka's oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war's many victims.
At UN, Sri Lanka Move to Place Alleged War Criminal As Ambassador Questioned http://www.innercitypress.com/sri6experts082510.h…
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera's department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
Massacres of Tamils by Sri lanka State Terror from 1956 http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TPHS2B…
Tamil Genocide http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TC70A5…
Two nations in one island
"Two different nations, from a very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and western parts from the river Wallouwe to Chilaw, and the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners."
Sir Hugh Cleghorn, British Colonial Secretary, June 1879
1883-Two nations brought under one colonial administration
Both the Tamil People & Sinhalese people are indigenous people of Sri Lanka.
Early history records that they had their own monarchs and kingdoms. They were conquered by the colonial powers separately and in different periods in history.
They existed as separate communities until the British brought them together in 1883 under a single administration for the very first time in their long history
February 4th 1948, Change of Colonial Rulers
A unified state of Ceylon was declared independent
Political power handed to Sinhala majoritarian rule driven by Sinhala/Buddhist supremacy
1948-ON WARDS – The state aided colonisation of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.
1956 – The Sinhalese Language made the only official language by legislation, effectively making the educated Tamil people illiterate at a stroke denying them equal access to education and employment in the unified island. 1st Step of the Genocide – dehumanisation started
The Sinhala-Colonial Era 1957 to 1958
1957 B – C Pact between the Sinhalese Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam QC to meet some of the demands of the Tamil people.
1958 – The Tamils living in the South are murdered and their property destroyed by Sinhala mob as the police and armed forces stand by – The Next step in Tamil Genocide is taken.
The B-C Pact unilaterally abrogated by Mr Bandaranaike to pacify the extreme elements among the Sinhalese Buddhists.
1965 D – C Pact – entered into, with another Sinhalese Prime minister Dudley Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayagam was never implemented by the Sinhalese government.
1969 – Tamils seek redress through the judiciary and the Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act, since it violated s.29(2) the constitution.
1971 – The government responds by abolishing appeals to Privy Council. Another non-violent path is closed by the Sinhalese government.
1972 new Sinhala constitution imposed on Tamils
1972- The new Republican Constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without their consent.
The only legal safeguard provided by the entrenched section 29(2) of the Soulbury constitution, described by the Privy Council in London that they "represent the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental condition on which inter se they accepted the constitution; and these are therefore unalterable under the constitution", was scrapped.
Tamil parties walked out of the constituent assembly. With this, Tamil participation of the democratic process in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) came to an end.
Marginalisation and oppression of Tamils continue…….
1973 – Through a process of standardization the government restricts entry of Tamil students to universities and institutions of higher education.
The Tamil Youth who had hitherto stayed away from politics enter the fray The Thamil Maanavar Peravai (Tamil Students Form) is borne.
The members of this non violent Tamil Students Forum are arrested and detained without trial by the Sinhala State. The 4th Floor of the Sri Lankan CID becomes a chamber where the Tamil youth are kept incommunicado and tortured.
1974 – The 4th International Tamil literary conference in Jaffna was violently broken up by the police, where many died and several were injured.
Every year, the memorials for those died in this massacre are desecrated and demolished methodically, by the Sinhalese Forces stationed in Jaffna, following reconstruction at each anniversary. Tamil youth are driven further and further away from the non violent democratic path.
Birth of the Tamil armed resistance in response to 25 years of State Terrorism
25 years denial of legitimate Tamil grievances Discriminatory and oppressive policies of the Sinhala regime Broken promises of successive governments
Recurrent and state sanctioned mob Violence Use of state armed violence against non-violent protests.
The Tamil youth loose faith in passive means to win their rights.
1976 The Tamil Armed Resistance Movement started. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is borne (originally named Tamil New Tigers)
No one ready to see innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka. “Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.
Over 40,000 Tamils were victim of war last year. Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. Now over 492 reach canada too.
Finally, The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/11/sri-lanka-p…
The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered.
Tamil migrants say they are fleeing mass murders http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+migrants+t…
Send us the Tamils, Vic http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnis…
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/…
Some of the approximately 300 reports compiled by the State Department include allegations that government forces:
•Attacked hospitals and other civilian institutions
•Executed prisoners of war
•Killed rebel soldiers who were trying to surrender
•Secretly abducted and killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men
•Failed to provide adequate food, water and medical supplies to people displaced by fighting
23 killed as boat sinks in Indian Ocean http://sify.com/news/23-killed-as-boat-sinks-in-i…
As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
Rajapaksa onslaught on basic rights is a common threat to all our citizens by
''…. In the South, resistance is possible and, given certain conducive conditions, can become successful. In the North, democratic and peaceful resistance is near impossible, because the regime and its agents can implement any injustice, however abominable, under the cover of security. Once the mantle of security embroidered with patriotic rhetoric,, is used to cover an injustice, not only do victims lose the capacity to protest; the South opts for silent complicity.
According to media reports, 5,000 Tamil families (from Indrapuram and Shanthipuran in Killinochchi, Thiru-Murugandi in Mullaitivu and Munnikulam in Mannar) have been expelled from their villages to make way for cantonments for army families. And 15,000 school children have to study under trees, because their schools have been transformed into IDP camps, and the state, instead of building new schools and new houses, is constructing new military camps and cantonments (new temples too, while demolishing existing temples in the East, to build tourist hotels). ….''
So we start something again before Jim MD could answer my question on the previous post.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+Congress+c…
Check this link and the comments the Canadians have made on how they feel about the situation. I will, in due course provide some more wonderful links from Canadian press it self, sharing views of Canadians of how they feel about the situation.
Why does JIM MD want to ask the world about the situation in Canada ??? What's important is how the Canadians feel about Apes and Worms invading their countries and feasting their backyards ?? Get their feedback Jim !! Ask them how they feel !!!
Jim also seems to take this issue personally and try to make it look like an issue of the Tamils. I have my doubts on his affiliation to Terrorist LTTE remaining pussies than for any Tamil. If a Tamil brother or Sister wants to migrate or visit Canada legally, they could do so without an issue with the blessings of both governments of Sri Lanka and Canada. So many people do go the right / legal way – If you visit the Canadian embassy of SL at Gregories road, you will see that there are plenty and more who legally apply and visit Canada. Why take a boat ????? – It is because they have other motives – it is proven Human Trafficking – Which assylum seeker pays USD 50,000 to get on board ??
Jim !!!!!
1. Can you please elucidate us on who steered the Ship (The captain of the ship) and what was his affiliation with the LTTE ??
2. How much did each person had to pay to get in to the ship ??
3. Where did they start their journey from ?
4. How many Sri Lankans are there, How many Indians, Thai and Paki's are there seeking asylum from Sri Lanka ??
Jim !!!
If you can answer the above questions, you your self will figure out that you are turning Amnesty International in to an organization that supports Human Trafficking, Smuggling and engage in other illegal activities !!
NOT GOOD FOR AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSE TO LOOK AFTER THE INTEREST OF HUMANS !!!
Who is going to look after the rights of the Canadian citizen when HR organizations feast their backyards with terrorist Apes and Worms ??
So we start something again before Jim MD could answer my question on the previous post.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+Congress+c…
Check this link and the comments the Canadians have made on how they feel about the situation. I will, in due course provide some more wonderful links from Canadian press it self, sharing views of Canadians of how they feel about the situation.
Why does JIM MD want to ask the world about the situation in Canada ??? What's important is how the Canadians feel about Apes and Worms invading their countries and feasting their backyards ?? Get their feedback Jim !! Ask them how they feel !!!
Jim also seems to take this issue personally and try to make it look like an issue of the Tamils. I have my doubts on his affiliation to Terrorist LTTE remaining pussies than for any Tamil. If a Tamil brother or Sister wants to migrate or visit Canada legally, they could do so without an issue with the blessings of both governments of Sri Lanka and Canada. So many people do go the right / legal way – If you visit the Canadian embassy of SL at Gregories road, you will see that there are plenty and more who legally apply and visit Canada. Why take a boat ????? – It is because they have other motives – it is proven Human Trafficking – Which assylum seeker pays USD 50,000 to get on board ??
Jim !!!!!
1. Can you please elucidate us on who steered the Ship (The captain of the ship) and what was his affiliation with the LTTE ??
2. How much did each person had to pay to get in to the ship ??
3. Where did they start their journey from ?
4. How many Sri Lankans are there, How many Indians, Thai and Paki's are there seeking asylum from Sri Lanka ??
Jim !!!
If you can answer the above questions, you your self will figure out that you are turning Amnesty International in to an organization that supports Human Trafficking, Smuggling and engage in other illegal activities !!
NOT GOOD FOR AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSE TO LOOK AFTER THE INTEREST OF HUMANS !!!
Who is going to look after the rights of the Canadian citizen when HR organizations feast their backyards with terrorist Apes and Worms ??
Why Tamils escape sri lanka, evevn though it is risk again
Five Sri Lankans lost amid big sharks http://www.smh.com.au/national/five-sri-lankans-l…
Hell or High Water http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s28149…
As many as 40,000 civilians could have been killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to someone with detailed knowledge of the conflict – the former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss. Mr Weiss has resigned from the UN after 14 years and returned home to Australia. He’s now free to speak openly about the situation in Sri Lanka, for the first time and does so candidly and unflinchingly in Foreign Correspondent’s return program.
He tells reporter Eric Campbell that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians died during the final desperate battles last year, of one of the world’s longest running and bloodiest civil wars.
“About 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area of territory about the size of Central Park in New York,” says Weiss. “They were within range of all the armaments that were being used, small and large, being used to smash the Tamil Tiger lines … the end result was that many thousands lost their lives.”
Why Tamils escape sri lanka, evevn though it is risk again
Five Sri Lankans lost amid big sharks http://www.smh.com.au/national/five-sri-lankans-l…
Hell or High Water http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s28149…
As many as 40,000 civilians could have been killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to someone with detailed knowledge of the conflict – the former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss. Mr Weiss has resigned from the UN after 14 years and returned home to Australia. He’s now free to speak openly about the situation in Sri Lanka, for the first time and does so candidly and unflinchingly in Foreign Correspondent’s return program.
He tells reporter Eric Campbell that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians died during the final desperate battles last year, of one of the world’s longest running and bloodiest civil wars.
“About 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area of territory about the size of Central Park in New York,” says Weiss. “They were within range of all the armaments that were being used, small and large, being used to smash the Tamil Tiger lines … the end result was that many thousands lost their lives.”
Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government's iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka's oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war's many victims.
Seeking justice in Sri Lanka http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Seeking-jus…
Sri Lanka's bloody 25-year-long civil war ended violently in May 2009. However, Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government's iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka's oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war's many victims.
At UN, Sri Lanka Move to Place Alleged War Criminal As Ambassador Questioned http://www.innercitypress.com/sri6experts082510.h…
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera's department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
Seeking justice in Sri Lanka http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Seeking-jus…
Sri Lanka's bloody 25-year-long civil war ended violently in May 2009. However, Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government's iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka's oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war's many victims.
At UN, Sri Lanka Move to Place Alleged War Criminal As Ambassador Questioned http://www.innercitypress.com/sri6experts082510.h…
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera's department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
Extrajudicial killings, Thuggery, Kidnappings are the way of life in Sri Lanka
Many Tamils are risking their lives by fleeing the country on damaged boats and ships. Sri Lankan rulers are not only persecuting the Tamils in Sri Lanka but also making the lives miserable for those who are fleeing to other countries.
Agents of Sri Lanka, some of them who work as pseudo terror experts and journalists in other countries are demonising the Tamils who are struggling for their survival even in the seas. These fake experts continue to deceive the international community by identifying every Tamil child, mother and father as terrorists.
Some Sri Lankan senior cabinet ministers are seeking access to the fleeing refugees so that they can torment the victims even outside Sri Lanka. No laws in the world would allow the persecutors to meet the their fleeing victims in foreign soil or in international waters unless these foreign countries are also having worst human rights records as Sri Lanka who have no respect for the law.
Who are the real Terrorists in Sri Lanka?
The words “Terrorism” and "Terrorists" are mostly misunderstood words in the world today. Regimes in Iran and North Korea call the Western countries as terror states. Majority of us will not agree with Iran or North Korea. Developments of destructive weapons in these two countries are not just posing danger to the neighbouring nations but to the entire world.
Sri Lanka has been playing the same game for many years but it has taken quite a while for many of us to understand the reality. Sri Lankan rulers have been successful in hiding their crimes against the Tamil minorities and exaggerating the Tamil resistance. Sri Lanka spends millions of dollars in propaganda to justify, hide and deny the atrocities against the Tamil minorities
Now Sri Lanka has started to blame international aid organisations, international rights organisations, and western democracies as terror entities. One should question if many of us have been right in taking the same view of Sri Lanka by blaming the Tamil resistance against the Sinhala Chauvinism as Terrorism.
If we consider terrorism as a destructive act against innocent people and their properties, a simple statistics about Sri Lanka would show us who the real terrorists are and why we should believe in the fact that terrorism is still destroying the lives of people in Sri Lanka and the culprits are Sri Lankan rulers who continue to harbour racist and extremist views.
Even a primary school child with simple mathematical skills would not just be able to understand the deadly conflict in Sri Lanka but also would be able to identify who the real victims are and who the culprits are, just by looking at these simple and obvious facts.
In the last sixty years more than three hundred thousands Tamils died in Sri Lanka. They were killed by bombs, guns, swords and knives. Many Tamils went through physical abuse, torture, isolation and rape in the hands of the Sinhala soldiers before their death. Thousands of Tamil women were raped. More than fifty thousands were maimed. Many thousands have become orphans and windows. More than a million had to flee the country in order to save the lives.
Majority of the homes, schools, public libraries, churches, temples and hospitals in the North and East of the country have all been destroyed by the bombs and shells fired by the Sri Lankan military. Most of the lands where Tamils lived are now looking like giant grave yards.
Sri Lankan military has caused a great environmental disaster in Tamil lands by uprooting millions of trees and destroying the wild life.
In the middle of the last century, More than 30% percentage of the population in Sri Lanka was Tamil speaking (Indigenous Tamils, Upcountry Tamils and Muslims). This has now been reduced to 20%.
More than 20% of the land that was originally belonged to the Tamils were forcefully be taken away and given to the Sinhalese. Hundreds of Tamil villages and roads were turned into Sinhala villages and their names have been changed to Sinhala.
30% of the Tamil land is currently occupied by Sri Lankan Sinhala soldiers.
Tamils were once the majority in two eastern districts but they have already become minority as the successive Sri Lankan governments have been changing the demographics in Tamil districts by implementing Sinhala settlements.
These are just facts that speak for themselves. Racist Sri Lankan regimes have persecuted the Tamils for a long time and they have also been very successful in ethic cleansing in the last sixty years.
Root cause of the Conflict, Mother of All the Evils
It is a sad reality that many international think tanks haven't either still identified the root cause of the Sri Lankan conflict or they are deliberately ignoring it in order to fulfil their own hidden agendas.
Sinhala Chauvinism is the mother of all the evils that is destroying this beautiful country. It is built on ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, insecurity, anger, lies and deceptions. This is a dangerous disease that has blinded the hearts and minds of the extremists. Sinhala Chauvinism or Sinhala Buddhist extremism can be compared to Nazism.
Sinhala Chauvinism is nothing to do with the ordinary Sinhala people. This is not even to do with the Sri Lankan military although they have incidentally become the tools and weapons of the extremist, racist and corrupt religious and political leaders.
Many Sinhala people are peace loving and in fact there are many Sinhala intellectuals, journalists, human rights activists and people from all walks of life, are fighting for the oppressed Tamil people and some have even laid down their lives for their fellow humans.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism. Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism talk about peace and harmony among the inhabitants of this earth. They preach about tolerance, peace and respect for others. Unfortunately, we have seen so many religious wars in the world and the root cause of them were not the religions in pure forms but their perverted versions.
Rise of Al Qaeda in the west, Violence by extreme Hindus in India, War between Catholics and Protestants, Sinhala Buddhists extremists destroying churches in Sri Lanka are all showing the dangerous signs of religious perversion and religious extremism.
As opposed to many people think, Sri Lanka hasn't got a genuine democracy. Sri Lanka is in reality, indirectly ruled by a violent religious Buddhist cult that preaches and practices hatred against the Tamils. Ordinary Sinhala Buddhist people are brainwashed by Buddhist clergies. Political parties that support such extreme racist policies are selected by the majority Sinhala people as the rulers. Rulers of Sri Lanka come up with discriminative policies to stay in power and to satisfy the hunger of those who want to see the land free of Tamils.
Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka have both been living there for more than two thousands years. The sad reality is that the Sinhala Buddhists want to make Sri Lanka as a Sinhala Buddhist country which means they want the Tamils out or continue to treat Tamils as second class citizens.
Psychology behind Racism
Racists are the most foolish people on this earth because they either perceive that they are superior to others or they imagine that their survival, quality of life and social status are threatened by another race. They wouldn't be able to digest, when someone with another colour, religion or race prosper in front of their eyes.
Ignorance, insecurity, jealousy, pride, selfishness, greed and all the evils come together and make people to hate those who are not like them. Mugabe chasing out White farmers in Zimbabwe, Extremist Serbians killing the Bosnian Muslims, Hitler massacring the Jews and Sinhalese killing the Tamils are all telling us the same story.
Current unrest in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the middle of the last century when Tamils were comparatively doing well in education and business. Sinhala extremists in Sri Lanka couldn’t digest the fact that Tamils still being a minority, dominating education and business. Since 1950, almost every ten years, Tamils were killed in thousands and their properties were burned to ashes. These attacks were always masterminded by the Sinhala rulers who were in power.
In the last thirty years, with the excuse of War on Terror, Sri Lanka has managed to destroy most of the homes, Schools, libraries, hospitals, factories and farms in the Tamil areas. Sri Lankan Tamils who were once, one of the most literate and prosperous people groups in the South East Asia is now fighting for their bare survival.
How is the world responding?
As usual, the geopolitical interest of other countries in Sri Lanka is one of the main reasons why this conflict has been dragging on for years. Corrupt Sri Lankan leaders easily become puppets of the foreign governments. Sri Lanka is located on strategically important sea route that is vital for the security of many countries.
It has now gone beyond an acceptable level that human rights abuses are sending shock waves across the world. Even the ones that were once supporting this country are now at least pretending to be neutral to save their own skins.
Sri Lanka is ranked as South Asia’s No.1 human rights violator. Sri Lanka scored the highest negative points for the right to life, the rights of the child, attacks on human rights defenders and violations of the rights of the minorities. On press freedom, Sri Lanka was ranked second worse only after Bhutan — which has no independent press. Sri Lanka was ranked number 97 in an index compiled by Transparency International, an anti corruption watchdog, in 2009.
Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) based in Milan, which held hearings on 14th and 15th of January 2010 has found that Sri Lanka Government is "guilty of War-Crimes" and "guilty of Crimes Against Humanity." Eye witnesses included several escapees from the final week of Sri Lanka offensive in the Mullaitivu "No Fire Zone" where more than thousands of innocent Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lanka Army with heavy weapons.
The U.S. Department of State‘s Office of War Crimes has recently released its investigation into the final stage of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
It was based on a wide range of sources, including Amnesty International's own reporting, and uses both traditional and innovative evidence such as satellite imagery and aerial photographs. This report provides a disturbing overview of what happened in the so-called “No-Fire Zone”.
The European Commission has decided to suspend Sri Lanka's preferential trade status following a probe criticising the island's human rights record. The suspension follows a year-long European Commission probe that concluded that the Sri Lankan government was in breach of commitments on human rights and good governance that come with the preferential trade status.
Commonwealth has decided not to host the next summit in Sri Lanka. If the situation doesn't improve, suspension of this country from Commonwealth is another possibility.
International community should continue to take tough measures like economic embargoes and war crime inquiries to make sure that this country won’t slip further into darkness and the culprits are brought to justice. These steps are necessary to convince the people of Sri Lanka that they will be isolated from the world if they continue elect leaders who chose the path of extremism and violence instead of path of peace.
How does Sri Lanka defend its atrocities?
Non-compliance, denials, refusals, justifications, blackmailing and other techniques are used by countries like Sri Lanka to escape justice.
Sri Lanka is simply a rock state that no longer has any respect for human rights. Leaders of this country are only interested in fulfilling their racist agendas and to satisfy their own greed.
Sri Lankan government regularly appoint individuals with doctorates and other higher degrees as cabinet ministers and propaganda activists to lobby in the UN and in foreign countries. Many of them speak in fluent English and having citizenships in other western countries and their main role is to justify the atrocities that are committed by the Sri Lankan government. These individuals are experts in blaming the victims and protecting the criminals.
Sri Lankan government also has their own pseudo terror experts working in foreign soils and their main role is to defend the Sri Lankan government and to identify anyone that opposes the Sri Lankan government as terrorist. Sri Lanka spends millions on propaganda and to pay for consultants and propaganda firms that are working round the clock to hide or justify the atrocities committed by the rulers of Sri Lanka.
Can the new King of Sri Lanka bring deliverance to the Tamils?
In the last sixty years three hundred thousands were slaughtered, several thousands were raped, tortured, imprisoned and disappeared in Sri Lanka. More than a million have fled the country with the fear of persecution. 99% of the victims were Tamils and 99% of the perpetrators were Sri Lankan military personal or members of Buddhist Sinhala extremist groups. One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to understand what is going on in this country.
Freedom is a God given right to every living human on this earth. Tamils in Sri Lanka, Muslims in Bosnia, Jews in Jerusalem, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in North Korea, Blacks in France, Whites in Zimbabwe and Aboriginals in Australia should all be enjoying the same rights as any other people groups on this planet.
Nazism, Sinhala Chauvinism, Racism, Fascism, you can name them how you like, but these are all manifestations of a social evil, that destroy lives.
The madness that is going on this country can only be stopped by destroying the demon of ignorance from the hearts and minds of those who rejoice in hatred and violence against their follow citizens. This is not a battle against flesh and blood but against the forces of darkness clouding over this nation
Unless the civilised world stand against the perpetrators of human rights abuses, war criminals and corrupt politicians in Sri Lanka, unless we stop dancing to the tunes played by Sri Lankan rulers, unless we confront the agents of Sri Lanka who have been deceiving the international community through lies and deceptions, unless we stop doing business with Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka will continue to persecute its minorities with the blessing of those who are determined to be on the wrong side just to satisfy their own greed.
Governments come and go but there is no end to the suffering of Tamils in this Island. No matter who comes to power, the root cause of the conflict will again be ignored by the rulers of Sri Lanka deliberately to keep the majority happy. Unless the root cause of the ethnic problem is dealt with, Sri Lanka will face another wave of violence that could even be detrimental to the peace and stability in the whole South East Asia.
Massacres of Tamils by Sri lanka State Terror from 1956 http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TPHS2B…
Tamil Genocide http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TC70A5…
Two nations in one island
"Two different nations, from a very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and western parts from the river Wallouwe to Chilaw, and the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners."
Sir Hugh Cleghorn, British Colonial Secretary, June 1879
1883-Two nations brought under one colonial administration
Both the Tamil People & Sinhalese people are indigenous people of Sri Lanka.
Early history records that they had their own monarchs and kingdoms. They were conquered by the colonial powers separately and in different periods in history.
They existed as separate communities until the British brought them together in 1883 under a single administration for the very first time in their long history
February 4th 1948, Change of Colonial Rulers
A unified state of Ceylon was declared independent
Political power handed to Sinhala majoritarian rule driven by Sinhala/Buddhist supremacy
1948-ON WARDS – The state aided colonisation of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.
1956 – The Sinhalese Language made the only official language by legislation, effectively making the educated Tamil people illiterate at a stroke denying them equal access to education and employment in the unified island. 1st Step of the Genocide – dehumanisation started
The Sinhala-Colonial Era 1957 to 1958
1957 B – C Pact between the Sinhalese Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam QC to meet some of the demands of the Tamil people.
1958 – The Tamils living in the South are murdered and their property destroyed by Sinhala mob as the police and armed forces stand by – The Next step in Tamil Genocide is taken.
The B-C Pact unilaterally abrogated by Mr Bandaranaike to pacify the extreme elements among the Sinhalese Buddhists.
1965 D – C Pact – entered into, with another Sinhalese Prime minister Dudley Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayagam was never implemented by the Sinhalese government.
1969 – Tamils seek redress through the judiciary and the Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act, since it violated s.29(2) the constitution.
1971 – The government responds by abolishing appeals to Privy Council. Another non-violent path is closed by the Sinhalese government.
1972 new Sinhala constitution imposed on Tamils
1972- The new Republican Constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without their consent.
The only legal safeguard provided by the entrenched section 29(2) of the Soulbury constitution, described by the Privy Council in London that they "represent the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental condition on which inter se they accepted the constitution; and these are therefore unalterable under the constitution", was scrapped.
Tamil parties walked out of the constituent assembly. With this, Tamil participation of the democratic process in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) came to an end.
Marginalisation and oppression of Tamils continue…….
1973 – Through a process of standardization the government restricts entry of Tamil students to universities and institutions of higher education.
The Tamil Youth who had hitherto stayed away from politics enter the fray The Thamil Maanavar Peravai (Tamil Students Form) is borne.
The members of this non violent Tamil Students Forum are arrested and detained without trial by the Sinhala State. The 4th Floor of the Sri Lankan CID becomes a chamber where the Tamil youth are kept incommunicado and tortured.
1974 – The 4th International Tamil literary conference in Jaffna was violently broken up by the police, where many died and several were injured.
Every year, the memorials for those died in this massacre are desecrated and demolished methodically, by the Sinhalese Forces stationed in Jaffna, following reconstruction at each anniversary. Tamil youth are driven further and further away from the non violent democratic path.
Birth of the Tamil armed resistance in response to 25 years of State Terrorism
25 years denial of legitimate Tamil grievances Discriminatory and oppressive policies of the Sinhala regime Broken promises of successive governments
Recurrent and state sanctioned mob Violence Use of state armed violence against non-violent protests.
The Tamil youth loose faith in passive means to win their rights.
1976 The Tamil Armed Resistance Movement started. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is borne (originally named Tamil New Tigers)
Massacres of Tamils by Sri lanka State Terror from 1956 http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TPHS2B…
Tamil Genocide http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TC70A5…
Two nations in one island
"Two different nations, from a very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and western parts from the river Wallouwe to Chilaw, and the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners."
Sir Hugh Cleghorn, British Colonial Secretary, June 1879
1883-Two nations brought under one colonial administration
Both the Tamil People & Sinhalese people are indigenous people of Sri Lanka.
Early history records that they had their own monarchs and kingdoms. They were conquered by the colonial powers separately and in different periods in history.
They existed as separate communities until the British brought them together in 1883 under a single administration for the very first time in their long history
February 4th 1948, Change of Colonial Rulers
A unified state of Ceylon was declared independent
Political power handed to Sinhala majoritarian rule driven by Sinhala/Buddhist supremacy
1948-ON WARDS – The state aided colonisation of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.
1956 – The Sinhalese Language made the only official language by legislation, effectively making the educated Tamil people illiterate at a stroke denying them equal access to education and employment in the unified island. 1st Step of the Genocide – dehumanisation started
The Sinhala-Colonial Era 1957 to 1958
1957 B – C Pact between the Sinhalese Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam QC to meet some of the demands of the Tamil people.
1958 – The Tamils living in the South are murdered and their property destroyed by Sinhala mob as the police and armed forces stand by – The Next step in Tamil Genocide is taken.
The B-C Pact unilaterally abrogated by Mr Bandaranaike to pacify the extreme elements among the Sinhalese Buddhists.
1965 D – C Pact – entered into, with another Sinhalese Prime minister Dudley Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayagam was never implemented by the Sinhalese government.
1969 – Tamils seek redress through the judiciary and the Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act, since it violated s.29(2) the constitution.
1971 – The government responds by abolishing appeals to Privy Council. Another non-violent path is closed by the Sinhalese government.
1972 new Sinhala constitution imposed on Tamils
1972- The new Republican Constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without their consent.
The only legal safeguard provided by the entrenched section 29(2) of the Soulbury constitution, described by the Privy Council in London that they "represent the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental condition on which inter se they accepted the constitution; and these are therefore unalterable under the constitution", was scrapped.
Tamil parties walked out of the constituent assembly. With this, Tamil participation of the democratic process in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) came to an end.
Marginalisation and oppression of Tamils continue…….
1973 – Through a process of standardization the government restricts entry of Tamil students to universities and institutions of higher education.
The Tamil Youth who had hitherto stayed away from politics enter the fray The Thamil Maanavar Peravai (Tamil Students Form) is borne.
The members of this non violent Tamil Students Forum are arrested and detained without trial by the Sinhala State. The 4th Floor of the Sri Lankan CID becomes a chamber where the Tamil youth are kept incommunicado and tortured.
1974 – The 4th International Tamil literary conference in Jaffna was violently broken up by the police, where many died and several were injured.
Every year, the memorials for those died in this massacre are desecrated and demolished methodically, by the Sinhalese Forces stationed in Jaffna, following reconstruction at each anniversary. Tamil youth are driven further and further away from the non violent democratic path.
Birth of the Tamil armed resistance in response to 25 years of State Terrorism
25 years denial of legitimate Tamil grievances Discriminatory and oppressive policies of the Sinhala regime Broken promises of successive governments
Recurrent and state sanctioned mob Violence Use of state armed violence against non-violent protests.
The Tamil youth loose faith in passive means to win their rights.
1976 The Tamil Armed Resistance Movement started. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is borne (originally named Tamil New Tigers)
No one ready to see innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka. “Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.
Over 40,000 Tamils were victim of war last year. Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. Now over 492 reach canada too.
Finally, The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/11/sri-lanka-p…
The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered.
No one ready to see innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka. “Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.
Over 40,000 Tamils were victim of war last year. Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. Now over 492 reach canada too.
Finally, The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/11/sri-lanka-p…
The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered.
Tamil migrants say they are fleeing mass murders http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+migrants+t…
Send us the Tamils, Vic http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnis…
Tamil migrants say they are fleeing mass murders http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+migrants+t…
Send us the Tamils, Vic http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnis…
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/…
Some of the approximately 300 reports compiled by the State Department include allegations that government forces:
•Attacked hospitals and other civilian institutions
•Executed prisoners of war
•Killed rebel soldiers who were trying to surrender
•Secretly abducted and killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men
•Failed to provide adequate food, water and medical supplies to people displaced by fighting
23 killed as boat sinks in Indian Ocean http://sify.com/news/23-killed-as-boat-sinks-in-i…
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/…
Some of the approximately 300 reports compiled by the State Department include allegations that government forces:
•Attacked hospitals and other civilian institutions
•Executed prisoners of war
•Killed rebel soldiers who were trying to surrender
•Secretly abducted and killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men
•Failed to provide adequate food, water and medical supplies to people displaced by fighting
23 killed as boat sinks in Indian Ocean http://sify.com/news/23-killed-as-boat-sinks-in-i…
Every day the Tamils face disappearances, rapes, imprisonment without trial and in a good outcome in hospital like the 68 blind man in an example below
———
Dramatic increase of white van abductions And threats by unknown armed men.
The notorious white van abductions and threats by unknown armed men have been noticeably increased in the last few months.
Mr. S. Periyathambi, age 68 of Jaffna, is said to have been assaulted by unknown armed men who raided his house on 30th July 2010. The armed men demanded the family to handover the information of the whereabouts of their sons.
When, Mr. S. Periyathambi who is partially blind attempted to stop them from forcing their way into the house, he was punched on his face and pushed against the wall.
After seizing some photographs and other document from the house, they left the house, threatening the family to be killed if they maintain any contact with their sons. Mr. S. Periyathambi was admitted in Jaffna with severe injuries.
In June 2010, it was reported that Mr. A. Rajaratnam of Vavuniya passed away in heart attack following the death threat issued by unknown armed men who raided into his house.
Regardless of this tragedy the armed men continue to harass his family and Mrs. T. Anantharani has appealed to the Human rights commission to protect the family.
Another similar incident was brought to the attention of the Human rights commission in Colombo on 19th August 2010. Mr. K. Thavakumar had been approached twice by the armed men and demanded to handover his son.
Although this incident was brought to the attention of the police, no action was taken.
The silence of the police leads to the suspicion that these armed men could be associated to the police.
A.Savage wrote
Your song for the People comes back to me.
Song from many days back.
Song of loss, song of longing.
Song of exile & returning.
Its cadence, its lilt, its deep sadness.
Its terseness.
Its plaintive wail.
Reminds me of native chants from the old free days from across Turtle Island.
Songs of oldtimers, warriors.
i will listen for more songs from you, my brothers.
And so will the future.is listening to you.
———————————————-
Magnificent Verses !!!
Thanks 🙂 🙂 🙂
TAMIL REFUGEES SYMPTOM OF INTERNATIONAL FAILURE IN SRI LANKA
OTTAWA – The arrival of the 490 Tamil boat people seeking refuge in Canada is a symptom of the continued humanitarian suffering in Sri Lanka. It’s time for the government of Canada to rally international efforts to pressure the Sri Lankan government improve living conditions on the ground, say New Democrats.
“After the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, Minister Cannon simply moved on from the file and failed to maintain international attention on the plight of Tamils,” said New Democrat Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre). “Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of displaced people continued to be targeted for brutal human rights violations in government-run camps in unhealthy and unsafe conditions and without access to international aid agencies.”
“What motivated these people to take such a dangerous journey is the violence, insecurity, mass detention and human rights violations that have been widely reported by independent observers,” said New Democrat Immigration and Citizenship Critic Olivia Chow. “The best way to prevent others from having to make similar journeys in the future is to work on ending the humanitarian suffering in Sri Lanka”.
With the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, New Democrats urged the Conservative government to take the lead with the international community to help rebuild the country. Specially ensuring the protection of all civilians, full access for humanitarian workers and media, and initiate internationally mediated efforts aimed at achieving a durable political solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. Dewar points if these measures would have been put in place last year these migrants might not have taken such a drastic step in trying to arrive in Canada.
“Canada missed an opportunity in post-conflict Sri Lanka for leadership in reconciliation, justice, and institution building to ensure that peace and stability are equitable and sustainable,” said Dewar. “The Conservatives should stop blaming the victims of the conflict who are now seeking asylum in Canada and instead rally the international community around improving the conditions on the ground in Sri Lanka.”
Michael Ignatieff: lower the rhetoric on Tamil migrants
Opposition leader warns against over-reacting
Canadians need to stand back and take a deep breath when it comes to the discussion around the almost 500 migrants who arrived on our soil a little over a week ago. That’s the advice federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff doled out during a live interview with News1130 at the PNE on Saturday.
Ignatieff says the government is trying to scare Canadians by telling them terrorists were on board the MV Sun Sea. The Liberal leader says we should put our faith in the refugee system to weed out those who don’t deserve asylum in Canada. “Let’s just lower that rhetoric here. Let’s lower the temperature. Give our officials a chance to sort out who’s who. And also never forget that this country has been a home to refugees, and I think it should remain so.”
Ignatieff’s father sought refuge in Canada, after escaping Communist Russia. He says that’s why he believes every person on the ship deserves a fair hearing.
Sri Lanka ambassador’s ”Refugee claims” absurd,
‘No point in slamming Tamils who fled Lanka’
Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, has claimed that the arrival of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea is a ‘human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.’ Wagiswara’s claims ‘would be offensive, if they were not so absurd,’ said Robert Oberst, professor of political science, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and an expert on Sri Lanka.
•“The Director of Rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu has said that the 103,000 Tamil refugees in India are reluctant to return to Sri Lanka because of the problems that Wagiswara states do not exist. They choose to remain in the camps or as non-camp refugees,”
•“She doesn’t mention that the country is still under war time emergency provisions, which allows unlimited detention without court hearings for Tamils,”
•“Nor does she mention that the country has taken a large percentage of Tamil land in the Northern Province for military bases, forcing farmers to struggle to survive,”
•Oberst added that if Wagiswara wanted to silence critics, ‘she would be better served to persuade her government to allow outside independent observers into the Tamil areas to report on the conditions rather than to slander and attack those who question her government.’
•“The Lankan government has created this situation by prohibiting outsiders and reporters from traveling and meeting freely with Tamils in the North,”
•“They have also viciously attacked critics. If you question the conditions that these people are fleeing from, you are called a supporter of organised crime as Wagiswara has done, or a terrorist as Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has done,”
•“A nation state that does not do these things has nothing to hide,” Oberst concluded.
No education for the 60 000 Tamil Children in the North – and excuse is to rebuild the schools yet all good buildings are occupied by the Sri Lanka Army .
Also luxury apartments for 12 000 Sinhalese families or 50 000 Sinhalese is build.
Plenty of money for the Sinhalese Army and none for the Tamil children !!
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE might work within Sri Lanka, it will not work so well out of Sri Lanka, where those adjudicating these claims and counter claims are not under Sri Lankan government influence.
Further, government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE suspects at a high rate in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks.
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
In a similar incident in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
It would be comforting to believe Canada is immune from this creeping xenophobia. Yet we saw it after a ship arrived in B.C. earlier this month with almost 500 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka. “Victoria residents angry at arrival of Tamil refugees,” brayed a Vancouver headline. In the story, Liberal MP Keith Martin said his office had been flooded with callers who were “angry because they don’t want the Tamil people to be let into Canada and they don’t want them drawing from our social services.”
Sound familiar? Those callers use the same fearful rhetoric — ” they’ll take what’s ours” — that U.S. politicians employed to get their nutty anti-Hispanic laws off the ground.
Instead of calling for a more tempered response, the Harper Conservatives have fed Canadians’ fears of the unknown. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the boat contained “suspected human smugglers and terrorists.” That’s scary stuff, no doubt about it — and while there may be a degree of truth in those comments, it’s far from the whole story.
The migrants came from Sri Lanka, a country reeling from the Tamil
war. According to Amnesty International the Sri Lankan government broke international humanitarian law throughout. Tamil people living in Sri Lanka still face “enforced disappearances” and torture. Human rights advocates and journalists are “killed, assaulted, threatened and jailed.”
Anti-immigrant types hate to be reminded that white North Americans are either immigrants, or descended from immigrants. It makes their hysterical arguments look ridiculous. But go back far enough and we’re all outsiders. This fact, not xenophobia, should guide Canada as we face the complex challenge of handling modern asylum seekers
Sexual abuse of resettled women in Vanni by SLA soldiers
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni continue to sexually abuse women among recently resettled civilians. Meanwhile, a journalist from Tamil Nadu who returned Friday from a visit to Vanni also said that the resettled people in Vanni had told him about SLA soldiers sexually abusing women besides intruding into their privacy under the pretext of search and checking.
The Tamil Nadu journalist also said how he was able to see in person the difficulties and suffering the resettled people in Vanni have to undergo contrary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s publicity campaign on the success of his resettlement projects in Vanni.
Meanwhile, the Christian priests said that women are the most victimized as most of them have to look after their families as their husbands or males in the families had been either killed in the war or taken as prisoners by SLA.
SLA soldiers enter the temporary dwellings of these women when they go on morning patrol and sometimes create opportunities to intrude into their privacy in the name of sudden checks and.
Young women are forced to remain in their huts as SLA soldiers harass them while going past the SLA sentry posts besides attempting to abuse them sexually.
Another Amnesty Lie Exposed. No returned Tamil 'refugees' abused or killed.
Jim "Cluster Bomb" McDonald, in 2010, says:
".. the asylum-seekers could be at risk of harm if returned to Sri Lanka."
The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, in 2006, says:
"…of 100 Tamil claimants refused refugee status and forced to return to Sri Lanka, none had suffered abuse by Sri Lankan officials or military."
http://tinyurl.com/3xpb4rw
An official at the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka, in 2006, says:
…"[s]ince 2004 … no returnees from Canada have been arrested or experienced negative repercussions at the airport or after exiting the airport grounds in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities who have dealt with the returnees have carried out their duties in a professional manner in compliance with international norms.
Directly from the UNCHR: http://tinyurl.com/3a6stga
What's that flushing noise I just heard? A little bit of AI's credibility draining away.
So, I hope you appreciate my contribution to the debate about AI's trustworthiness as an impartial interlocutor. i.e. very low.
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra-silva-to-un/
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
What a good Coincidence! The panel is waiting and the witnesses are entering the box.
Sri Lankan government war crime witnesses Palitha Kohana and the Major General Shevendra Silva are going to function as the Permanent Representative and the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Major General Shevendra Silva will take up his new post soon, sources at the External Affairs Ministry told Daily Mirror online this evening.
http://www.canlk.com/news/major-general-shevendra-silva-to-un/
The former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona agreed to the Norwegian Government’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that he would save the head of the LTTE’s political wing Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan when they should obtain a white flag and give themselves up.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka , the former army commander in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva had received orders from the defense secretary Gothapaya Rajapaksa to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Gen Fonseka spoke to the BBC Sinhala service on the telephone while attending parliament, said he would be prepared to testify before any independent investigation of alleged breaches of humanitarian law during the war against the Tamil Tigers – even though he himself was army commander at that time.
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/top-ltte-leaders-killed-while-trying-to-surrender-report_100196469.html)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10268722
Both of them will make the job easy for the UN Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the war crimes taken place in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamils
Another Amnesty Lie Exposed. No returned Tamil 'refugees' abused or killed.
Jim "Cluster Bomb" McDonald, in 2010, says:
".. the asylum-seekers could be at risk of harm if returned to Sri Lanka."
The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, in 2006, says:
"…of 100 Tamil claimants refused refugee status and forced to return to Sri Lanka, none had suffered abuse by Sri Lankan officials or military."
http://tinyurl.com/3xpb4rw
An official at the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka, in 2006, says:
…"[s]ince 2004 … no returnees from Canada have been arrested or experienced negative repercussions at the airport or after exiting the airport grounds in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities who have dealt with the returnees have carried out their duties in a professional manner in compliance with international norms.
Directly from the UNCHR: http://tinyurl.com/3a6stga
What's that flushing noise I just heard? A little bit of AI's credibility draining away.
So, I hope you appreciate my contribution to the debate about AI's trustworthiness as an impartial interlocutor. i.e. very low.
Another Amnesty Lie Exposed. No returned Tamil 'refugees' abused or killed.
Jim "Cluster Bomb" McDonald, in 2010, says:
".. the asylum-seekers could be at risk of harm if returned to Sri Lanka."
The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, in 2006, says:
"…of 100 Tamil claimants refused refugee status and forced to return to Sri Lanka, none had suffered abuse by Sri Lankan officials or military."
http://tinyurl.com/3xpb4rw
An official at the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka, in 2006, says:
…"[s]ince 2004 … no returnees from Canada have been arrested or experienced negative repercussions at the airport or after exiting the airport grounds in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities who have dealt with the returnees have carried out their duties in a professional manner in compliance with international norms.
Directly from the UNCHR: http://tinyurl.com/3a6stga
What's that flushing noise I just heard? A little bit of AI's credibility draining away.
So, I hope you appreciate my contribution to the debate about AI's trustworthiness as an impartial interlocutor. i.e. very low.
Dayan Jayatilleka has the habit of extrapolating and let his imagination to flow free when coming up with fascinating conclusions. In many his article he hasn’t done any analysis or come up with concrete proposals, but, he tries to find evidence and justification for his well enriched position and believes like;
• The Sri Lankan Arm forces are squeakily clean and they did (and doing) a humanitarian work, except its former commander ( SF) – violation of Human rights or killing of non-combatant etc
• Current political leadership ( Rajapaksa ) is the single most reason for the defeat of LTTE, militarily
• VP and his leaders are all terrorists; in this article, he tries to proof VP is not only a failed leader but a poor strategist. Not like Castro etc
• Tamil Leaders have made all the mistakes (past and present) and Sinhala leaders haven’t made any; if they did those are due to stupid demands of the Tamil leaders.
• Advice and “red line” areas which Tamils should not even think of discussing and agitating. (While no such advice or “red line” areas are provided to Maninda Rajapaksa or to his clans)
• And so on, so on , so on
Sadly, Dayan Jayatilleka ventures into areas boarding “hearsay” like KP’s interview and make many observations and conclusions without concrete evidence
Kumaran Padmanathan or KP is in jail !!! 🙂
What a staggering pile of steaming bovine fecal residue !!!!!
Let's just take a moment and look at this babble… mind you introducing logic and fact to this crowd is a bit like trying to explain a 3D movie to a one-eyed dog with brain damage
"Hello, Hello, Vannakam, it's Eelam in Canada calling. We fooled the White Masters and made it to Canada! Santhosam, Santhosam
"Frustrated Tamil migrants were finally given the free use of telephones to call their loved ones in Sri Lanka after losing contact with them for more than 14 weeks….
.the migrants had complained about not being able to phone home.
“They are worried about their wives and family back at home,” said David Poopalapilllai, of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“They haven’t heard from their loved ones in more than three months.”
“They feel much better now that they can talk to someone at home,” Poopalapilllai said from B.C. on Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/274oshk
The Eelam Fake Refugee Show continues to amaze and astound. I just love their whiny, complaining attitude, guaranteed to make Canadians really love the latest additions to their wonderful society.
Our old friend and head of the LTTE in Canada, David Poop-in-Pants (Canadian Tamil Congress) is doing a wonderful job. [Maybe he's a GOSL agent?]
Fantastic. Even the SL govt couldn't have scripted this better.
• Fake refugees,
• Fake tales of abuse in Sri Lanka,
• Human smuggling courtesy of the LTTE,
• Pretending poverty yet able to afford $30,000 per person fee,
• Claim abuse in SL if returned, but no evidence of that happening!
@ Gunalan:
It's always nice to see pure ignorance and denial in action.
KP's not in jail. Here he is er… not in jail and talking with ex-LTTEers being rehabilitated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta7EfFhze14
Will KP's wise words penetrate the thick skulls of the LTTE's true-believers? Probably not.
Which LTTE faction do you belong to?
The LTTE Realists (headed by KP) wanting to reach a realistic accommodation with the SL govt through peaceful means or the LTTE Fantasists, (headed by Nediyavan Donkey Master) who want to err… continue fighting.
http://businesstoday.lk/cover_page.php?article=27…
Q: You work very closely with the Tamil Diaspora, can you tell us what progress has been made so far with regards to getting them to support the efforts made?
KP replies: "Yes, I have worked with the Diaspora for more than 25 years. … Recently a delegation of the Diaspora visited Sri Lanka. …have accepted the work I have done to mobilise the Diaspora for rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country, especially the North and East."
"… We have to accept the reality. The war is over. We have to unite and rebuild our people and our country."
"For more than 2500 years we have been friends and brothers in this country…… We have to listen to what the people want on the ground. They realise that they have to live in this country and that we have to live together."
"We cannot continue our lives on a dream, I can say ‘ok, continue the arm struggle' but I do not know for how long I can speak the lie. There are sections of the Diaspora who speak in this way while living in western countries, but they need to understand that it is impossible. They have to understand the reality .. It is a challenge to convince these people and I do not say it is easy but we need to work on it."
The Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism.
Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism.
Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Sinhala Buddhists extremists destroying churches in Sri Lanka are all showing the dangerous signs of religious perversion and religious extremism.
As opposed to many people think, Sri Lanka hasn’t got a genuine democracy.
Sri Lanka is in reality, indirectly ruled by a violent religious Buddhist cult that preaches and practices hatred against the Tamils.
Ordinary Sinhala Buddhist people are brainwashed by Buddhist clergies. Political parties that support such extreme racist policies are selected by the majority Sinhala people as the rulers.
Rulers of Sri Lanka come up with discriminative policies to stay in power and to satisfy the hunger of those who want to see the land free of Tamils.
As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
Rajapaksa onslaught on basic rights is a common threat to all our citizens by
”…. In the South, resistance is possible and, given certain conducive conditions, can become successful. In the North, democratic and peaceful resistance is near impossible, because the regime and its agents can implement any injustice, however abominable, under the cover of security. Once the mantle of security embroidered with patriotic rhetoric,, is used to cover an injustice, not only do victims lose the capacity to protest; the South opts for silent complicity.
According to media reports, 5,000 Tamil families (from Indrapuram and Shanthipuran in Killinochchi, Thiru-Murugandi in Mullaitivu and Munnikulam in Mannar) have been expelled from their villages to make way for cantonments for army families. And 15,000 school children have to study under trees, because their schools have been transformed into IDP camps, and the state, instead of building new schools and new houses, is constructing new military camps and cantonments (new temples too, while demolishing existing temples in the East, to build tourist hotels). ….”
So we start something again before Jim MD could answer my question on the previous post.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+Congress+concerned+Ottawa+tone/3415180/story.html
Check this link and the comments the Canadians have made on how they feel about the situation. I will, in due course provide some more wonderful links from Canadian press it self, sharing views of Canadians of how they feel about the situation.
Why does JIM MD want to ask the world about the situation in Canada ??? What’s important is how the Canadians feel about Apes and Worms invading their countries and feasting their backyards ?? Get their feedback Jim !! Ask them how they feel !!!
Jim also seems to take this issue personally and try to make it look like an issue of the Tamils. I have my doubts on his affiliation to Terrorist LTTE remaining pussies than for any Tamil. If a Tamil brother or Sister wants to migrate or visit Canada legally, they could do so without an issue with the blessings of both governments of Sri Lanka and Canada. So many people do go the right / legal way – If you visit the Canadian embassy of SL at Gregories road, you will see that there are plenty and more who legally apply and visit Canada. Why take a boat ????? – It is because they have other motives – it is proven Human Trafficking – Which assylum seeker pays USD 50,000 to get on board ??
Jim !!!!!
1. Can you please elucidate us on who steered the Ship (The captain of the ship) and what was his affiliation with the LTTE ??
2. How much did each person had to pay to get in to the ship ??
3. Where did they start their journey from ?
4. How many Sri Lankans are there, How many Indians, Thai and Paki’s are there seeking asylum from Sri Lanka ??
Jim !!!
If you can answer the above questions, you your self will figure out that you are turning Amnesty International in to an organization that supports Human Trafficking, Smuggling and engage in other illegal activities !!
NOT GOOD FOR AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSE TO LOOK AFTER THE INTEREST OF HUMANS !!!
Who is going to look after the rights of the Canadian citizen when HR organizations feast their backyards with terrorist Apes and Worms ??
Why Tamils escape sri lanka, evevn though it is risk again
Five Sri Lankans lost amid big sharks
http://www.smh.com.au/national/five-sri-lankans-lost-amid-big-sharks-20100510-uor5.html
Hell or High Water
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s2814960.htm
As many as 40,000 civilians could have been killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to someone with detailed knowledge of the conflict – the former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss. Mr Weiss has resigned from the UN after 14 years and returned home to Australia. He’s now free to speak openly about the situation in Sri Lanka, for the first time and does so candidly and unflinchingly in Foreign Correspondent’s return program.
He tells reporter Eric Campbell that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians died during the final desperate battles last year, of one of the world’s longest running and bloodiest civil wars.
“About 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area of territory about the size of Central Park in New York,” says Weiss. “They were within range of all the armaments that were being used, small and large, being used to smash the Tamil Tiger lines … the end result was that many thousands lost their lives.”
Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government’s iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka’s oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war’s many victims.
Seeking justice in Sri Lanka
http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Seeking-justice-in-Sri-Lanka-629915.php
Sri Lanka’s bloody 25-year-long civil war ended violently in May 2009. However, Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government’s iron-fisted rule.
The Sri Lankan government sponsors and condones extrajudicial killings, rape and the disappearances of members of the opposition. In addition, the government has repeatedly failed to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed during the war. Sri Lanka’s oppressive political atmosphere makes accountability, justice and reconciliation seem like an impossible dream for the war’s many victims.
At UN, Sri Lanka Move to Place Alleged War Criminal As Ambassador Questioned
http://www.innercitypress.com/sri6experts082510.html
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera’s department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
"Hello, Hello, Vannakam, it's Eelam in Canada calling. We fooled the White Masters and made it to Canada! Santhosam, Santhosam
"Frustrated Tamil migrants were finally given the free use of telephones to call their loved ones in Sri Lanka after losing contact with them for more than 14 weeks….
.the migrants had complained about not being able to phone home.
“They are worried about their wives and family back at home,” said David Poopalapilllai, of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“They haven’t heard from their loved ones in more than three months.”
“They feel much better now that they can talk to someone at home,” Poopalapilllai said from B.C. on Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/274oshk
The Eelam Fake Refugee Show continues to amaze and astound. I just love their whiny, complaining attitude, guaranteed to make Canadians really love the latest additions to their wonderful society.
Our old friend and head of the LTTE in Canada, David Poop-in-Pants (Canadian Tamil Congress) is doing a wonderful job. [Maybe he's a GOSL agent?]
Fantastic. Even the SL govt couldn't have scripted this better.
• Fake refugees,
• Fake tales of abuse in Sri Lanka,
• Human smuggling courtesy of the LTTE,
• Pretending poverty yet able to afford $30,000 per person fee,
• Claim abuse in SL if returned, but no evidence of that happening!
"Hello, Hello, Vannakam, it's Eelam in Canada calling. We fooled the White Masters and made it to Canada! Santhosam, Santhosam
"Frustrated Tamil migrants were finally given the free use of telephones to call their loved ones in Sri Lanka after losing contact with them for more than 14 weeks….
.the migrants had complained about not being able to phone home.
“They are worried about their wives and family back at home,” said David Poopalapilllai, of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“They haven’t heard from their loved ones in more than three months.”
“They feel much better now that they can talk to someone at home,” Poopalapilllai said from B.C. on Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/274oshk
The Eelam Fake Refugee Show continues to amaze and astound. I just love their whiny, complaining attitude, guaranteed to make Canadians really love the latest additions to their wonderful society.
Our old friend and head of the LTTE in Canada, David Poop-in-Pants (Canadian Tamil Congress) is doing a wonderful job. [Maybe he's a GOSL agent?]
Fantastic. Even the SL govt couldn't have scripted this better.
• Fake refugees,
• Fake tales of abuse in Sri Lanka,
• Human smuggling courtesy of the LTTE,
• Pretending poverty yet able to afford $30,000 per person fee,
• Claim abuse in SL if returned, but no evidence of that happening!
Extrajudicial killings, Thuggery, Kidnappings are the way of life in Sri Lanka
Many Tamils are risking their lives by fleeing the country on damaged boats and ships. Sri Lankan rulers are not only persecuting the Tamils in Sri Lanka but also making the lives miserable for those who are fleeing to other countries.
Agents of Sri Lanka, some of them who work as pseudo terror experts and journalists in other countries are demonising the Tamils who are struggling for their survival even in the seas. These fake experts continue to deceive the international community by identifying every Tamil child, mother and father as terrorists.
Some Sri Lankan senior cabinet ministers are seeking access to the fleeing refugees so that they can torment the victims even outside Sri Lanka. No laws in the world would allow the persecutors to meet the their fleeing victims in foreign soil or in international waters unless these foreign countries are also having worst human rights records as Sri Lanka who have no respect for the law.
Who are the real Terrorists in Sri Lanka?
The words “Terrorism” and “Terrorists” are mostly misunderstood words in the world today. Regimes in Iran and North Korea call the Western countries as terror states. Majority of us will not agree with Iran or North Korea. Developments of destructive weapons in these two countries are not just posing danger to the neighbouring nations but to the entire world.
Sri Lanka has been playing the same game for many years but it has taken quite a while for many of us to understand the reality. Sri Lankan rulers have been successful in hiding their crimes against the Tamil minorities and exaggerating the Tamil resistance. Sri Lanka spends millions of dollars in propaganda to justify, hide and deny the atrocities against the Tamil minorities
Now Sri Lanka has started to blame international aid organisations, international rights organisations, and western democracies as terror entities. One should question if many of us have been right in taking the same view of Sri Lanka by blaming the Tamil resistance against the Sinhala Chauvinism as Terrorism.
If we consider terrorism as a destructive act against innocent people and their properties, a simple statistics about Sri Lanka would show us who the real terrorists are and why we should believe in the fact that terrorism is still destroying the lives of people in Sri Lanka and the culprits are Sri Lankan rulers who continue to harbour racist and extremist views.
Even a primary school child with simple mathematical skills would not just be able to understand the deadly conflict in Sri Lanka but also would be able to identify who the real victims are and who the culprits are, just by looking at these simple and obvious facts.
In the last sixty years more than three hundred thousands Tamils died in Sri Lanka. They were killed by bombs, guns, swords and knives. Many Tamils went through physical abuse, torture, isolation and rape in the hands of the Sinhala soldiers before their death. Thousands of Tamil women were raped. More than fifty thousands were maimed. Many thousands have become orphans and windows. More than a million had to flee the country in order to save the lives.
Majority of the homes, schools, public libraries, churches, temples and hospitals in the North and East of the country have all been destroyed by the bombs and shells fired by the Sri Lankan military. Most of the lands where Tamils lived are now looking like giant grave yards.
Sri Lankan military has caused a great environmental disaster in Tamil lands by uprooting millions of trees and destroying the wild life.
In the middle of the last century, More than 30% percentage of the population in Sri Lanka was Tamil speaking (Indigenous Tamils, Upcountry Tamils and Muslims). This has now been reduced to 20%.
More than 20% of the land that was originally belonged to the Tamils were forcefully be taken away and given to the Sinhalese. Hundreds of Tamil villages and roads were turned into Sinhala villages and their names have been changed to Sinhala.
30% of the Tamil land is currently occupied by Sri Lankan Sinhala soldiers.
Tamils were once the majority in two eastern districts but they have already become minority as the successive Sri Lankan governments have been changing the demographics in Tamil districts by implementing Sinhala settlements.
These are just facts that speak for themselves. Racist Sri Lankan regimes have persecuted the Tamils for a long time and they have also been very successful in ethic cleansing in the last sixty years.
Root cause of the Conflict, Mother of All the Evils
It is a sad reality that many international think tanks haven’t either still identified the root cause of the Sri Lankan conflict or they are deliberately ignoring it in order to fulfil their own hidden agendas.
Sinhala Chauvinism is the mother of all the evils that is destroying this beautiful country. It is built on ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, insecurity, anger, lies and deceptions. This is a dangerous disease that has blinded the hearts and minds of the extremists. Sinhala Chauvinism or Sinhala Buddhist extremism can be compared to Nazism.
Sinhala Chauvinism is nothing to do with the ordinary Sinhala people. This is not even to do with the Sri Lankan military although they have incidentally become the tools and weapons of the extremist, racist and corrupt religious and political leaders.
Many Sinhala people are peace loving and in fact there are many Sinhala intellectuals, journalists, human rights activists and people from all walks of life, are fighting for the oppressed Tamil people and some have even laid down their lives for their fellow humans.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism. Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism talk about peace and harmony among the inhabitants of this earth. They preach about tolerance, peace and respect for others. Unfortunately, we have seen so many religious wars in the world and the root cause of them were not the religions in pure forms but their perverted versions.
Rise of Al Qaeda in the west, Violence by extreme Hindus in India, War between Catholics and Protestants, Sinhala Buddhists extremists destroying churches in Sri Lanka are all showing the dangerous signs of religious perversion and religious extremism.
As opposed to many people think, Sri Lanka hasn’t got a genuine democracy. Sri Lanka is in reality, indirectly ruled by a violent religious Buddhist cult that preaches and practices hatred against the Tamils. Ordinary Sinhala Buddhist people are brainwashed by Buddhist clergies. Political parties that support such extreme racist policies are selected by the majority Sinhala people as the rulers. Rulers of Sri Lanka come up with discriminative policies to stay in power and to satisfy the hunger of those who want to see the land free of Tamils.
Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka have both been living there for more than two thousands years. The sad reality is that the Sinhala Buddhists want to make Sri Lanka as a Sinhala Buddhist country which means they want the Tamils out or continue to treat Tamils as second class citizens.
Psychology behind Racism
Racists are the most foolish people on this earth because they either perceive that they are superior to others or they imagine that their survival, quality of life and social status are threatened by another race. They wouldn’t be able to digest, when someone with another colour, religion or race prosper in front of their eyes.
Ignorance, insecurity, jealousy, pride, selfishness, greed and all the evils come together and make people to hate those who are not like them. Mugabe chasing out White farmers in Zimbabwe, Extremist Serbians killing the Bosnian Muslims, Hitler massacring the Jews and Sinhalese killing the Tamils are all telling us the same story.
Current unrest in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the middle of the last century when Tamils were comparatively doing well in education and business. Sinhala extremists in Sri Lanka couldn’t digest the fact that Tamils still being a minority, dominating education and business. Since 1950, almost every ten years, Tamils were killed in thousands and their properties were burned to ashes. These attacks were always masterminded by the Sinhala rulers who were in power.
In the last thirty years, with the excuse of War on Terror, Sri Lanka has managed to destroy most of the homes, Schools, libraries, hospitals, factories and farms in the Tamil areas. Sri Lankan Tamils who were once, one of the most literate and prosperous people groups in the South East Asia is now fighting for their bare survival.
How is the world responding?
As usual, the geopolitical interest of other countries in Sri Lanka is one of the main reasons why this conflict has been dragging on for years. Corrupt Sri Lankan leaders easily become puppets of the foreign governments. Sri Lanka is located on strategically important sea route that is vital for the security of many countries.
It has now gone beyond an acceptable level that human rights abuses are sending shock waves across the world. Even the ones that were once supporting this country are now at least pretending to be neutral to save their own skins.
Sri Lanka is ranked as South Asia’s No.1 human rights violator. Sri Lanka scored the highest negative points for the right to life, the rights of the child, attacks on human rights defenders and violations of the rights of the minorities. On press freedom, Sri Lanka was ranked second worse only after Bhutan — which has no independent press. Sri Lanka was ranked number 97 in an index compiled by Transparency International, an anti corruption watchdog, in 2009.
Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) based in Milan, which held hearings on 14th and 15th of January 2010 has found that Sri Lanka Government is “guilty of War-Crimes” and “guilty of Crimes Against Humanity.” Eye witnesses included several escapees from the final week of Sri Lanka offensive in the Mullaitivu “No Fire Zone” where more than thousands of innocent Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lanka Army with heavy weapons.
The U.S. Department of State‘s Office of War Crimes has recently released its investigation into the final stage of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
It was based on a wide range of sources, including Amnesty International’s own reporting, and uses both traditional and innovative evidence such as satellite imagery and aerial photographs. This report provides a disturbing overview of what happened in the so-called “No-Fire Zone”.
The European Commission has decided to suspend Sri Lanka’s preferential trade status following a probe criticising the island’s human rights record. The suspension follows a year-long European Commission probe that concluded that the Sri Lankan government was in breach of commitments on human rights and good governance that come with the preferential trade status.
Commonwealth has decided not to host the next summit in Sri Lanka. If the situation doesn’t improve, suspension of this country from Commonwealth is another possibility.
International community should continue to take tough measures like economic embargoes and war crime inquiries to make sure that this country won’t slip further into darkness and the culprits are brought to justice. These steps are necessary to convince the people of Sri Lanka that they will be isolated from the world if they continue elect leaders who chose the path of extremism and violence instead of path of peace.
How does Sri Lanka defend its atrocities?
Non-compliance, denials, refusals, justifications, blackmailing and other techniques are used by countries like Sri Lanka to escape justice.
Sri Lanka is simply a rock state that no longer has any respect for human rights. Leaders of this country are only interested in fulfilling their racist agendas and to satisfy their own greed.
Sri Lankan government regularly appoint individuals with doctorates and other higher degrees as cabinet ministers and propaganda activists to lobby in the UN and in foreign countries. Many of them speak in fluent English and having citizenships in other western countries and their main role is to justify the atrocities that are committed by the Sri Lankan government. These individuals are experts in blaming the victims and protecting the criminals.
Sri Lankan government also has their own pseudo terror experts working in foreign soils and their main role is to defend the Sri Lankan government and to identify anyone that opposes the Sri Lankan government as terrorist. Sri Lanka spends millions on propaganda and to pay for consultants and propaganda firms that are working round the clock to hide or justify the atrocities committed by the rulers of Sri Lanka.
Can the new King of Sri Lanka bring deliverance to the Tamils?
In the last sixty years three hundred thousands were slaughtered, several thousands were raped, tortured, imprisoned and disappeared in Sri Lanka. More than a million have fled the country with the fear of persecution. 99% of the victims were Tamils and 99% of the perpetrators were Sri Lankan military personal or members of Buddhist Sinhala extremist groups. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand what is going on in this country.
Freedom is a God given right to every living human on this earth. Tamils in Sri Lanka, Muslims in Bosnia, Jews in Jerusalem, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in North Korea, Blacks in France, Whites in Zimbabwe and Aboriginals in Australia should all be enjoying the same rights as any other people groups on this planet.
Nazism, Sinhala Chauvinism, Racism, Fascism, you can name them how you like, but these are all manifestations of a social evil, that destroy lives.
The madness that is going on this country can only be stopped by destroying the demon of ignorance from the hearts and minds of those who rejoice in hatred and violence against their follow citizens. This is not a battle against flesh and blood but against the forces of darkness clouding over this nation
Unless the civilised world stand against the perpetrators of human rights abuses, war criminals and corrupt politicians in Sri Lanka, unless we stop dancing to the tunes played by Sri Lankan rulers, unless we confront the agents of Sri Lanka who have been deceiving the international community through lies and deceptions, unless we stop doing business with Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka will continue to persecute its minorities with the blessing of those who are determined to be on the wrong side just to satisfy their own greed.
Governments come and go but there is no end to the suffering of Tamils in this Island. No matter who comes to power, the root cause of the conflict will again be ignored by the rulers of Sri Lanka deliberately to keep the majority happy. Unless the root cause of the ethnic problem is dealt with, Sri Lanka will face another wave of violence that could even be detrimental to the peace and stability in the whole South East Asia.
Massacres of Tamils by Sri lanka State Terror from 1956
http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TPHS2BRT61CRONBGP
Tamil Genocide
http://www.topix.com/forum/world/sri-lanka/TC70A5EDNMP25J14C
Two nations in one island
“Two different nations, from a very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and western parts from the river Wallouwe to Chilaw, and the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners.”
Sir Hugh Cleghorn, British Colonial Secretary, June 1879
1883-Two nations brought under one colonial administration
Both the Tamil People & Sinhalese people are indigenous people of Sri Lanka.
Early history records that they had their own monarchs and kingdoms. They were conquered by the colonial powers separately and in different periods in history.
They existed as separate communities until the British brought them together in 1883 under a single administration for the very first time in their long history
February 4th 1948, Change of Colonial Rulers
A unified state of Ceylon was declared independent
Political power handed to Sinhala majoritarian rule driven by Sinhala/Buddhist supremacy
1948-ON WARDS – The state aided colonisation of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.
1956 – The Sinhalese Language made the only official language by legislation, effectively making the educated Tamil people illiterate at a stroke denying them equal access to education and employment in the unified island. 1st Step of the Genocide – dehumanisation started
The Sinhala-Colonial Era 1957 to 1958
1957 B – C Pact between the Sinhalese Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam QC to meet some of the demands of the Tamil people.
1958 – The Tamils living in the South are murdered and their property destroyed by Sinhala mob as the police and armed forces stand by – The Next step in Tamil Genocide is taken.
The B-C Pact unilaterally abrogated by Mr Bandaranaike to pacify the extreme elements among the Sinhalese Buddhists.
1965 D – C Pact – entered into, with another Sinhalese Prime minister Dudley Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayagam was never implemented by the Sinhalese government.
1969 – Tamils seek redress through the judiciary and the Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act, since it violated s.29(2) the constitution.
1971 – The government responds by abolishing appeals to Privy Council. Another non-violent path is closed by the Sinhalese government.
1972 new Sinhala constitution imposed on Tamils
1972- The new Republican Constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without their consent.
The only legal safeguard provided by the entrenched section 29(2) of the Soulbury constitution, described by the Privy Council in London that they “represent the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental condition on which inter se they accepted the constitution; and these are therefore unalterable under the constitution”, was scrapped.
Tamil parties walked out of the constituent assembly. With this, Tamil participation of the democratic process in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) came to an end.
Marginalisation and oppression of Tamils continue…….
1973 – Through a process of standardization the government restricts entry of Tamil students to universities and institutions of higher education.
The Tamil Youth who had hitherto stayed away from politics enter the fray The Thamil Maanavar Peravai (Tamil Students Form) is borne.
The members of this non violent Tamil Students Forum are arrested and detained without trial by the Sinhala State. The 4th Floor of the Sri Lankan CID becomes a chamber where the Tamil youth are kept incommunicado and tortured.
1974 – The 4th International Tamil literary conference in Jaffna was violently broken up by the police, where many died and several were injured.
Every year, the memorials for those died in this massacre are desecrated and demolished methodically, by the Sinhalese Forces stationed in Jaffna, following reconstruction at each anniversary. Tamil youth are driven further and further away from the non violent democratic path.
Birth of the Tamil armed resistance in response to 25 years of State Terrorism
25 years denial of legitimate Tamil grievances Discriminatory and oppressive policies of the Sinhala regime Broken promises of successive governments
Recurrent and state sanctioned mob Violence Use of state armed violence against non-violent protests.
The Tamil youth loose faith in passive means to win their rights.
1976 The Tamil Armed Resistance Movement started. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is borne (originally named Tamil New Tigers)
@ Gunalan:
It's always nice to see pure ignorance and denial in action.
KP's not in jail. Here he is er… not in jail and talking with ex-LTTEers being rehabilitated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta7EfFhze14
Will KP's wise words penetrate the thick skulls of the LTTE's true-believers? Probably not.
Which LTTE faction do you belong to?
The LTTE Realists (headed by KP) wanting to reach a realistic accommodation with the SL govt through peaceful means or the LTTE Fantasists, (headed by Nediyavan Donkey Master) who want to err… continue fighting.
http://businesstoday.lk/cover_page.php?article=27…
Q: You work very closely with the Tamil Diaspora, can you tell us what progress has been made so far with regards to getting them to support the efforts made?
KP replies: "Yes, I have worked with the Diaspora for more than 25 years. … Recently a delegation of the Diaspora visited Sri Lanka. …have accepted the work I have done to mobilise the Diaspora for rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country, especially the North and East."
"… We have to accept the reality. The war is over. We have to unite and rebuild our people and our country."
"For more than 2500 years we have been friends and brothers in this country…… We have to listen to what the people want on the ground. They realise that they have to live in this country and that we have to live together."
"We cannot continue our lives on a dream, I can say ‘ok, continue the arm struggle' but I do not know for how long I can speak the lie. There are sections of the Diaspora who speak in this way while living in western countries, but they need to understand that it is impossible. They have to understand the reality .. It is a challenge to convince these people and I do not say it is easy but we need to work on it."
@ Gunalan:
It's always nice to see pure ignorance and denial in action.
KP's not in jail. Here he is er… not in jail and talking with ex-LTTEers being rehabilitated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta7EfFhze14
Will KP's wise words penetrate the thick skulls of the LTTE's true-believers? Probably not.
Which LTTE faction do you belong to?
The LTTE Realists (headed by KP) wanting to reach a realistic accommodation with the SL govt through peaceful means or the LTTE Fantasists, (headed by Nediyavan Donkey Master) who want to err… continue fighting.
http://businesstoday.lk/cover_page.php?article=27…
Q: You work very closely with the Tamil Diaspora, can you tell us what progress has been made so far with regards to getting them to support the efforts made?
KP replies: "Yes, I have worked with the Diaspora for more than 25 years. … Recently a delegation of the Diaspora visited Sri Lanka. …have accepted the work I have done to mobilise the Diaspora for rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country, especially the North and East."
"… We have to accept the reality. The war is over. We have to unite and rebuild our people and our country."
"For more than 2500 years we have been friends and brothers in this country…… We have to listen to what the people want on the ground. They realise that they have to live in this country and that we have to live together."
"We cannot continue our lives on a dream, I can say ‘ok, continue the arm struggle' but I do not know for how long I can speak the lie. There are sections of the Diaspora who speak in this way while living in western countries, but they need to understand that it is impossible. They have to understand the reality .. It is a challenge to convince these people and I do not say it is easy but we need to work on it."
No one ready to see innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka. “Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.
Over 40,000 Tamils were victim of war last year. Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. Now over 492 reach canada too.
Finally, The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/11/sri-lanka-protests-against-un-echo-anti-justice-campaign
The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered.
Tamil migrants say they are fleeing mass murders
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tamil+migrants+they+fleeing+mass+murders/3404662/story.html#ixzz0wpZRBXwz
Send us the Tamils, Vic
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/send-us-the-tamils-vic-101249414.html
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100813/bc_sri_lanka_backgrounder_100813/20100813?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Some of the approximately 300 reports compiled by the State Department include allegations that government forces:
•Attacked hospitals and other civilian institutions
•Executed prisoners of war
•Killed rebel soldiers who were trying to surrender
•Secretly abducted and killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men
•Failed to provide adequate food, water and medical supplies to people displaced by fighting
23 killed as boat sinks in Indian Ocean
http://sify.com/news/23-killed-as-boat-sinks-in-indian-ocean-news-international-jlcj4bgjhjf.html
A.Savage wrote
Your song for the People comes back to me.
Song from many days back.
Song of loss, song of longing.
Song of exile & returning.
Its cadence, its lilt, its deep sadness.
Its terseness.
Its plaintive wail.
Reminds me of native chants from the old free days from across Turtle Island.
Songs of oldtimers, warriors.
i will listen for more songs from you, my brothers.
And so will the future.is listening to you.
———————————————-
Magnificent Verses !!!
Thanks 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also The person with the Handle Adriana !!
The Guy who masterminded this Human Trafficking exercise + steered the ship to Canada is "VINOD" – Directly linked to the LTTE and has been smuggling stuff for the LTTE for many years !!
So, if you cannot find a link to LTTE and these fakers, you seriously have an issue which you need to get medication for !
Eelamish 'Democracy' in action in Canada
Kumar Nadarajah, who runs a Tamil radio station in Scarborough and a .. candidate for a Toronto council seat says he withdrew from the race after being threatened by people seeking to run a rival candidate in the Oct. 25 municipal election.
…Nadarajah … received threatening phone calls from men who urged him to resign. He quit the race Jan. 13.
They said: ‘Well, we’re putting our candidate in,’ " he said in a recent interview. “We want our candidate on the scene and we want to have some political agenda there.’ "
Nadarajah said he withdrew because he feared for his safety and for his family.
“They will jeopardize my business,” he said, recounting what the callers told him. “Or they will threaten my business. Or they will throw stones at my house. Or they will smash my car.”
He would not identify the men or organization that threatened him, but another candidate in Ward 42 said it was members of the high-profile Canadian Tamil Congress." http://www.openfile.ca/node/985/
Ah, yes, David Poop-in-Pants of the CTC's been very busy, no?
• Supporting the LTTE
• Encouraging human smuggling
• Fixing elections..
Heil Eelam, Sieg Heil!
Good Luck, Canada! You got 'em, you keep 'em 🙂 🙂
UNITED NATIONS, August 25 — Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera’s department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
At the UN on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, about this reported appointment and that of General Wasantha Karannagoda to replace Palitha Kohona as Permanent Representative. Video here, from Minute 53:36. While Nesirky said he wouldn’t comment on hypotheticals, when Inner City Press asked if Ban would have some discretion to not accept credentials when presented, Nesirky said he would look into it.
Shavendra Silva is clearly a witness to the war crime events about which Ban has appointed a (stalled) three member panel to advise him.
Rip van Winkle
As for those so called Sinhalese names he mentions they are not Sinhalese names but Sinhalised versions of old Tamil place names.
Trying to portray ancient Tamil Buddhism in the North and East, and pass it as Sinhalese Buddhism to suit Sinhala nationalism is now the fad, to justify their genocide and ethnic cleansing activities.
Ethnicity of the population at various parts of the island changed with the time and rulers. Many of the so called present day Sinhalese until very recently were either Tamil Hindus or Catholics and the ethnicity in the North Central, Vanni Kurunegala , North western parts, parts of the east and Kandyan areas changed over the years at times was, Tamil Hindu.
Other times, they were the Sinhalese Buddhist. Depending on who ruled and the latest influence. However the ethnicity in Jaffna the coastal parts of the east, the Northern parts of the Vanni and coastal parts of the north west (Chilaw ,Puttlam, Negombo) until recently had always been Tamil. It was only in the hinterland that ethnicity changed. However after the European conquest many Tamils living along the southern and western coast became Sinhalese and some Sinhalese in the Vanni and Eastern hinterland became Tamils. However, more Tamils became Sinhalese… than the other way around.
Another Amnesty Lie Exposed. No returned Tamil ‘refugees’ abused or killed.
Jim “Cluster Bomb” McDonald, in 2010, says:
“.. the asylum-seekers could be at risk of harm if returned to Sri Lanka.“
The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, in 2006, says:
“…of 100 Tamil claimants refused refugee status and forced to return to Sri Lanka, none had suffered abuse by Sri Lankan officials or military.”
http://tinyurl.com/3xpb4rw
An official at the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka, in 2006, says:
…”[s]ince 2004 … no returnees from Canada have been arrested or experienced negative repercussions at the airport or after exiting the airport grounds in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities who have dealt with the returnees have carried out their duties in a professional manner in compliance with international norms.
Directly from the UNCHR: http://tinyurl.com/3a6stga
What’s that flushing noise I just heard? A little bit of AI’s credibility draining away.
So, I hope you appreciate my contribution to the debate about AI’s trustworthiness as an impartial interlocutor. i.e. very low.
A constructive dialogue between AI & GOSL?
Jim,
Would this dialogue discuss the innumerable attempts made by AI (in co-ordination with your buddies at HRW, EU etc) to punish SL for its' real and imagined mis-deeds during Eelam War 4, whilst simultaneously ignoring far worse crimes committed by the Western bloc in its Mid-Eastern misadventures?
In case you'd forgotten, my 'Top 5 AI Attacks on Sri Lanka' include the following:
• The ill-advised anti-SL cricket team 'Play by the Rules' campaign in 2007
• Jim's fake 'Cluster Bomb' story in 2009
• Trying and failing to punish SL at the UNHRC in May 2009
• AI spokesdroid Sam Zafiri's attacks on SL in the last stages of Eelam War 4
• Supporting US Representatives' spurious war crimes charges against SL without asking the US to be held to the same standard.
If the GOSL is making friends with KP, I'm sure they'll be able to do the same with AI. But, AI has to show that its changed its Pavlovian anti-SL reflexes. Judging by AI's recent blog posts and official statements…. not yet.
Eelamish 'Democracy' in action in Canada
Kumar Nadarajah, who runs a Tamil radio station in Scarborough and a .. candidate for a Toronto council seat says he withdrew from the race after being threatened by people seeking to run a rival candidate in the Oct. 25 municipal election.
…Nadarajah … received threatening phone calls from men who urged him to resign. He quit the race Jan. 13.
They said: ‘Well, we’re putting our candidate in,’ " he said in a recent interview. “We want our candidate on the scene and we want to have some political agenda there.’ "
Nadarajah said he withdrew because he feared for his safety and for his family.
“They will jeopardize my business,” he said, recounting what the callers told him. “Or they will threaten my business. Or they will throw stones at my house. Or they will smash my car.”
He would not identify the men or organization that threatened him, but another candidate in Ward 42 said it was members of the high-profile Canadian Tamil Congress." http://www.openfile.ca/node/985/
Ah, yes, David Poop-in-Pants of the CTC's been very busy, no?
• Supporting the LTTE
• Encouraging human smuggling
• Fixing elections..
Heil Eelam, Sieg Heil!
Good Luck, Canada! You got 'em, you keep 'em 🙂 🙂
Eelamish 'Democracy' in action in Canada
Kumar Nadarajah, who runs a Tamil radio station in Scarborough and a .. candidate for a Toronto council seat says he withdrew from the race after being threatened by people seeking to run a rival candidate in the Oct. 25 municipal election.
…Nadarajah … received threatening phone calls from men who urged him to resign. He quit the race Jan. 13.
They said: ‘Well, we’re putting our candidate in,’ " he said in a recent interview. “We want our candidate on the scene and we want to have some political agenda there.’ "
Nadarajah said he withdrew because he feared for his safety and for his family.
“They will jeopardize my business,” he said, recounting what the callers told him. “Or they will threaten my business. Or they will throw stones at my house. Or they will smash my car.”
He would not identify the men or organization that threatened him, but another candidate in Ward 42 said it was members of the high-profile Canadian Tamil Congress." http://www.openfile.ca/node/985/
Ah, yes, David Poop-in-Pants of the CTC's been very busy, no?
• Supporting the LTTE
• Encouraging human smuggling
• Fixing elections..
Heil Eelam, Sieg Heil!
Good Luck, Canada! You got 'em, you keep 'em 🙂 🙂
Eelam delenda est
I wonder, why they called you …..your dear daddy a pullu sappi ???
Dayan Jayatilleka has the habit of extrapolating and let his imagination to flow free when coming up with fascinating conclusions. In many his article he hasn’t done any analysis or come up with concrete proposals, but, he tries to find evidence and justification for his well enriched position and believes like;
• The Sri Lankan Arm forces are squeakily clean and they did (and doing) a humanitarian work, except its former commander ( SF) – violation of Human rights or killing of non-combatant etc
• Current political leadership ( Rajapaksa ) is the single most reason for the defeat of LTTE, militarily
• VP and his leaders are all terrorists; in this article, he tries to proof VP is not only a failed leader but a poor strategist. Not like Castro etc
• Tamil Leaders have made all the mistakes (past and present) and Sinhala leaders haven’t made any; if they did those are due to stupid demands of the Tamil leaders.
• Advice and “red line” areas which Tamils should not even think of discussing and agitating. (While no such advice or “red line” areas are provided to Maninda Rajapaksa or to his clans)
• And so on, so on , so on
Sadly, Dayan Jayatilleka ventures into areas boarding “hearsay” like KP’s interview and make many observations and conclusions without concrete evidence
Boat tragedy Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Why Tamils escape sri lanka, evevn though it is risk again
Five Sri Lankans lost amid big sharks
Because, though they are tamil by Nationality, they are Terrorist Apes – Why should a Tamil Sri Lankan who lives in Sri Lanka try to escape Sri Lanka by waters when they can go to Aussie or any other country legally by air ????
Many Tamils go to other countries on a daily basis through the Colombo Airport with out and issue ?? So, if brainless worms prefer being shark bait, it is not the problem of Tamils – It is an issue with Brainless Worm terrorists.
Also, can you please tell me how those who went to Canada seeking Asylum traveled to Thailand before jumping on board the Ship ??? they went legally through the Colombo Airport – jumped on board the ship in Thailand and now are seeking asylum in Canada ha ??
This is Human Trafficking courtesy of Terrorists LTTE – not seeking asylum !!
And, Jim Mc Donald and the Amnesty are supporting Human trafficking.
Arokyanathan Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Sri Lankan civilians — particularly Tamils — are still suffering under the government’s iron-fisted rule.
I don’t hear Kumaran Padmanathan – the LTTE current leader say that ??
I don’t hear many other Tamil leaders including Douglas Devanandan or the Opposition leaders of Mano Ganesan or R. Sampandan say that ??? Have they forgotten that they are representing Tamils in SL ??
Who the hell are you to say so ??? Why should I listen to some ape who do not know to peel a banana and living in another country ?? Get a person living in Sri Lanka to say so and I shall believe !!
Gunalan Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:12 am
Can’t believe such Dumb words are coming out from a handsome smiling face !!!
First of all, it would have been ideal if you could have mentioned the article and a link to the article – Not Copy and paste !!
Dayan has obviously spell out his thoughts and you obviously can argue with what he says, but, stating his points and saying it’s pointless without reasoning it out as to why it is pointless is quite obtuse don’t you think??
For example – it indeed is a fact from my point of view and I agree with Dayan when he says VP is a Failed leader !! – If not, he would obviously still be alive – If he had kept his pact of the peace cord and allowed people to have voted in 2005 and if RW had been president, He would have most probably been a prominent member of the Cabinet today and negotiating further – He dug his own grave – Failure for sure !!!! Castro did not fail, he still has his blood running that country !!
Also, DJ quoting KP is quite fine – after all, KP is still the leader of LTTE !! So why not take his words as the truth as he knew what was happening in LTTE more than you pick-pocketers, credit card thieves and street protesters would ever know of.
Whom do we believe ? The horse or the Stable door ?? I prefer the horse !!
Kumaran Padmanathan or KP is in jail !!! 🙂
What a staggering pile of steaming bovine fecal residue !!!!!
Let’s just take a moment and look at this babble… mind you introducing logic and fact to this crowd is a bit like trying to explain a 3D movie to a one-eyed dog with brain damage
Sri Lanka Racism is the Root Cause of All Evil
Sinhala Racism is the mother of all the evils that is destroying this beautiful country.
It is built on ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, insecurity, anger, lies and deceptions.
This is a dangerous disease that has blinded the hearts and minds of the extremists.
Sinhala Chauvinism or Sinhala Buddhist extremism can be compared to Nazism
The Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism.
Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the extremists and what we see today in Sri Lanka is a perverted version of Buddhism.
Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
Sinhala Buddhists extremists destroying churches in Sri Lanka are all showing the dangerous signs of religious perversion and religious extremism.
As opposed to many people think, Sri Lanka hasn’t got a genuine democracy.
Sri Lanka is in reality, indirectly ruled by a violent religious Buddhist cult that preaches and practices hatred against the Tamils.
Ordinary Sinhala Buddhist people are brainwashed by Buddhist clergies. Political parties that support such extreme racist policies are selected by the majority Sinhala people as the rulers.
Rulers of Sri Lanka come up with discriminative policies to stay in power and to satisfy the hunger of those who want to see the land free of Tamils.
“Hello, Hello, Vannakam, it’s Eelam in Canada calling. We fooled the White Masters and made it to Canada! Santhosam, Santhosam
“Frustrated Tamil migrants were finally given the free use of telephones to call their loved ones in Sri Lanka after losing contact with them for more than 14 weeks….
.the migrants had complained about not being able to phone home.
“They are worried about their wives and family back at home,” said David Poopalapilllai, of the Canadian Tamil Congress.
“They haven’t heard from their loved ones in more than three months.”
“They feel much better now that they can talk to someone at home,” Poopalapilllai said from B.C. on Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/274oshk
The Eelam Fake Refugee Show continues to amaze and astound. I just love their whiny, complaining attitude, guaranteed to make Canadians really love the latest additions to their wonderful society.
Our old friend and head of the LTTE in Canada, David Poop-in-Pants (Canadian Tamil Congress) is doing a wonderful job. [Maybe he’s a GOSL agent?]
Fantastic. Even the SL govt couldn’t have scripted this better.
• Fake refugees,
• Fake tales of abuse in Sri Lanka,
• Human smuggling courtesy of the LTTE,
• Pretending poverty yet able to afford $30,000 per person fee,
• Claim abuse in SL if returned, but no evidence of that happening!
@ Gunalan:
It’s always nice to see pure ignorance and denial in action.
KP’s not in jail. Here he is er… not in jail and talking with ex-LTTEers being rehabilitated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta7EfFhze14
Will KP’s wise words penetrate the thick skulls of the LTTE’s true-believers? Probably not.
Which LTTE faction do you belong to?
The LTTE Realists (headed by KP) wanting to reach a realistic accommodation with the SL govt through peaceful means or the LTTE Fantasists, (headed by Nediyavan Donkey Master) who want to err… continue fighting.
http://businesstoday.lk/cover_page.php?article=2743
Q: You work very closely with the Tamil Diaspora, can you tell us what progress has been made so far with regards to getting them to support the efforts made?
KP replies: “Yes, I have worked with the Diaspora for more than 25 years. … Recently a delegation of the Diaspora visited Sri Lanka. …have accepted the work I have done to mobilise the Diaspora for rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country, especially the North and East.”
“… We have to accept the reality. The war is over. We have to unite and rebuild our people and our country.”
“For more than 2500 years we have been friends and brothers in this country…… We have to listen to what the people want on the ground. They realise that they have to live in this country and that we have to live together.”
“We cannot continue our lives on a dream, I can say ‘ok, continue the arm struggle’ but I do not know for how long I can speak the lie. There are sections of the Diaspora who speak in this way while living in western countries, but they need to understand that it is impossible. They have to understand the reality .. It is a challenge to convince these people and I do not say it is easy but we need to work on it.”
UN mum on post http://www.dailymirror.lk/index.php/news/6086-un-…
The United Nations (UN) refused to comment on the appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the new Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
When asked about the appointment at a press briefing in New York, Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to comment. The spokesman was also asked if UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon can refuse to accept the appointment but the UN spokesman said he needed to check on the general procedure.
Major General Silva’s appointment to the UN comes amidst human rights allegations being raised against the government and the military which resulted in UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Fonseka was later indicted in Court over his claims.
Meanwhile the UN spokesman said that the panel appointed by the UN Chief to advice him on matters relating to Sri Lanka will meet “soon” but did not give a specific date as to by when they will officially commence work
“”Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, has claimed that the arrival of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea is a ‘human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.’ “”
It’s a nonsense, if they were all terrorists they won’t claim so much attention to him. It’s not strategic, don’t you think???
Measures to address Tamil refugee issues recommended http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/2…
Toronto – As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
“We should remember the Komagata Maru and the MS St. Louis. In today’s world, there are certainly legitimate concerns that must be addressed such as security threats and the horrors of human smuggling, but right now the refugee determination system can address questions relating to refugees who have already reached Canada.”
David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, added, “There are several additional measures that Canada should consider immediately to address the underlying issues: adding Sri Lanka to the source country class so that Sri Lankans could seek the protection of Canada while overseas, pressing the government of Sri Lanka to end human rights violations against its minority population and urging the government of Thailand – from where some of the boat people come – to sign and ratify the UN Refugee Convention.”
“Safeguards come not from shutting the door on human suffering, but from addressing the real issues head-on,” concluded Dimant.
Jim,
I’m glad you have decided to talk with SLG. May be we could arrange you to appear in front of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission?
In the mean time you should read what your good friend Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission.
Part 1 & 2.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/t…
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/t…
What Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission…
Part 3.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/t…
“However I believe there is at least one instance in which the state should have taken legal action, and our failure to do this has prompted blanket criticism which is not warranted, and distrust which, if not warranted, is understandable. I refer to the case of the killing of five youngsters in Trincomalee in 2006. I have long urged that indictments should be issued in that case. I respect the response of the Attorney General at the time, that a prosecution would not be successful because the evidence was incomplete, but my point was that there was need of a clear message that such conduct was not acceptable.”
You see Jim, his testimony was not all-pro government, but he was not arrested, shot at or phoned by the secret services in the middle of the night.
So WHAT DO YOU SAY JIM?
PS – I’ve heard that the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, is taking US tourists on a promotional trip to SRI Lanka. If you are interested please let us know!
“Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya said another intention of the programme is to promote cultural ties between the two countries. He pointed out that Americans will be able to witness the peaceful environment prevailing in the country.”
http://www.vivalanka.com/news/page.jsp?articleid=…
Tasty Eelam Sushi – Wish You Were Here
Whatever their other faults (e.g. supporting racist terrorists, encouraging human trafficking and whining a lot), the Canadian Tamil Congress certainly know how to PARTY! They really can boogie.
http://tinyurl.com/38pbvj5
With Sushi and a Canape in one hand an AK-47 in the other, the CTC's prosperous warrriors will most certainly achieve Eelam in Sri Lanka. Just wait and see.
A plate of canapes and sushi would probably feed a displaced family in the Vanni for a week.
@ Guanalan: Oh dear.. a little bit annoyed? You really shouldn't advertise your secret desires in an open forum. I know AI won't mind, but your fellow Puligal Warriors might not like it. Thalivar will be looking up from his pit in hell wondering what he deserved to have followers like you 🙂
Gunalan Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:33 am
Kumaran Padmanathan or KP is in jail !!!
Again a dumb statement from a smiling face ! I actually wanted to post the youtube clip my self, but, EDE has beaten me in to it. Does it look like KP is in Jail ? Also pls. read the following article…
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1651
Gunalan Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:40 am
Sri Lanka Racism is the Root Cause of All Evil
I agree that there is Racism in Sri Lanka among a minority – Do U agree that the same is there among Tamil community and almost 100% of these racists are the one’s who supported the LTTE ???? (this is where we say that we have the balls to accept wrong)
The root cause is both these parties…. I don’t stand for the Racist Sri Lankan Singhala or even Racist Sri Lankan Muslim community or any other Sri Lankan community that are racists. I stand for the majority Sri Lankans which consists of all ethnic communities and who are living as Sri Lankans.
Sinhala Racism is the mother of all the evils that is destroying this beautiful country.
So does Tamil racism – do u agree ??
This is a dangerous disease that has blinded the hearts and minds of the extremists.
Yes I agree – Take Taliban and Al Quaida for an example – Take LTTE for an example – extremists are bad in whatever form..
Sinhala Chauvinism or Sinhala Buddhist extremism can be compared to Nazism
This I would not agree – Nazi’s massacred Jews – Singhalees no matter how extreme has not got involved in such acts ….
Siva Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 4:55 am
Perverted religions are most dangerous ingredients for deadly conflicts all around the world.
If you say that most LTTE members are Hindu’s, does that make Hinduism a perverted religion too ???? My personal belief is that all religions teach good, but it is the perverts who disgrace religion they try to bring forward. But, the wise would always know the difference and would know that it is not a particular religion, but those who try to affiliate them selves to the good words of the holy who are perverts.
Sinhala Buddhists extremists destroying churches in Sri Lanka are all showing the dangerous signs of religious perversion and religious extremism.
Please give examples of such Churches destroyed !!!
There is a major population of Singhalees who are Christians and though the LTTE believed in spitting while looking to the skies and killed their fellow Tamils, Singhalees will not be that dumb..
As opposed to many people think, Sri Lanka hasn’t got a genuine democracy.
Please give examples of genuine democracies and how different it is from Sri Lanka….. Also please state whether the American Democracy is similar to English democracy and vise-verse and which countries have the same democratic principles as the other (two similar countries with identical constitutions and policies)
Sri Lanka is in reality, indirectly ruled by a violent religious Buddhist cult that preaches and practices hatred against the Tamils.
Then why does this same regime / CULT have the support of Many Tamil leaders and individuals ?? I cannot remember a political regime that had support from groups of this diversity. Even opposing Tamil parties have come together in supporting the current government…
I also totally disagree and throw to the dustbin your false claim of Buddhist clergy being racists ! just because a few jokers like Athuraliye Rathana (again I don’t recall making any racist comments) are in robes, that doesn’t mean that Buddhist clergy or Catholic clergy as a whole are promoting racism. Also, I again proclaim that if the government was racist, there will be no tamils including the LTTE leader KP supporting the government…
UN mum on post http://www.dailymirror.lk/index.php/news/6086-un-…
The United Nations (UN) refused to comment on the appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the new Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
When asked about the appointment at a press briefing in New York, Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to comment. The spokesman was also asked if UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon can refuse to accept the appointment but the UN spokesman said he needed to check on the general procedure.
Major General Silva’s appointment to the UN comes amidst human rights allegations being raised against the government and the military which resulted in UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Fonseka was later indicted in Court over his claims.
Meanwhile the UN spokesman said that the panel appointed by the UN Chief to advice him on matters relating to Sri Lanka will meet “soon” but did not give a specific date as to by when they will officially commence work
UN mum on post http://www.dailymirror.lk/index.php/news/6086-un-…
The United Nations (UN) refused to comment on the appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the new Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
When asked about the appointment at a press briefing in New York, Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to comment. The spokesman was also asked if UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon can refuse to accept the appointment but the UN spokesman said he needed to check on the general procedure.
Major General Silva’s appointment to the UN comes amidst human rights allegations being raised against the government and the military which resulted in UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Fonseka was later indicted in Court over his claims.
Meanwhile the UN spokesman said that the panel appointed by the UN Chief to advice him on matters relating to Sri Lanka will meet “soon” but did not give a specific date as to by when they will officially commence work
Adriana Lovalho Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 6:08 am
“”Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, has claimed that the arrival of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea is a ‘human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.’ “”
It’s a nonsense, if they were all terrorists they won’t claim so much attention to him. It’s not strategic, don’t you think???
Actually, all the attention is because they are Terrorists + people from South India, Thailand etc (not only Sri Lanka) + They paid USD 40 – 50 thousand to get on board + Some of the Sri Lankan on board actually took flight legally to Thailand before boarding the ship (Assylum seekers wouldn’t have managed to legally leave SL) + Canada it self is having huge issues with LTTE guys disturbing their day to day lives. It is pure Human Trafficking and that’s why issues are raised.
If there actually was a genuine issue, no one would bother.
Also The person with the Handle Adriana !!
The Guy who masterminded this Human Trafficking exercise + steered the ship to Canada is “VINOD” – Directly linked to the LTTE and has been smuggling stuff for the LTTE for many years !!
So, if you cannot find a link to LTTE and these fakers, you seriously have an issue which you need to get medication for !
Measures to address Tamil refugee issues recommended http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/2…
Toronto – As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
“We should remember the Komagata Maru and the MS St. Louis. In today’s world, there are certainly legitimate concerns that must be addressed such as security threats and the horrors of human smuggling, but right now the refugee determination system can address questions relating to refugees who have already reached Canada.”
David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, added, “There are several additional measures that Canada should consider immediately to address the underlying issues: adding Sri Lanka to the source country class so that Sri Lankans could seek the protection of Canada while overseas, pressing the government of Sri Lanka to end human rights violations against its minority population and urging the government of Thailand – from where some of the boat people come – to sign and ratify the UN Refugee Convention.”
“Safeguards come not from shutting the door on human suffering, but from addressing the real issues head-on,” concluded Dimant.
Measures to address Tamil refugee issues recommended http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/2…
Toronto – As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
“We should remember the Komagata Maru and the MS St. Louis. In today’s world, there are certainly legitimate concerns that must be addressed such as security threats and the horrors of human smuggling, but right now the refugee determination system can address questions relating to refugees who have already reached Canada.”
David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, added, “There are several additional measures that Canada should consider immediately to address the underlying issues: adding Sri Lanka to the source country class so that Sri Lankans could seek the protection of Canada while overseas, pressing the government of Sri Lanka to end human rights violations against its minority population and urging the government of Thailand – from where some of the boat people come – to sign and ratify the UN Refugee Convention.”
“Safeguards come not from shutting the door on human suffering, but from addressing the real issues head-on,” concluded Dimant.
UNITED NATIONS, August 25 — Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN post, vacant following Bandula Jayasekera’s department triggered by a sexual harassment scandal, is now reportedly slated to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, who “was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war.”
At the UN on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, about this reported appointment and that of General Wasantha Karannagoda to replace Palitha Kohona as Permanent Representative. Video here, from Minute 53:36. While Nesirky said he wouldn’t comment on hypotheticals, when Inner City Press asked if Ban would have some discretion to not accept credentials when presented, Nesirky said he would look into it.
Shavendra Silva is clearly a witness to the war crime events about which Ban has appointed a (stalled) three member panel to advise him.
Strange ??
Why the Sacked SL Deputy Minister Mervin Silva visits North ?
Mervin Silva, the Sri Lanka Deputy Minister sacked from his post by President Mahinda Rajapaksa for tying an officer of Samurdhi Bank to a tree, paid an unexpected visit to Jaffna and Vanni Sunday and Monday, sources in Vanni said. Mervin Silva, who spent most of his time in the North visiting important Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bases in Vanni meeting key officers, was given top security protection befitting a cabinet minister, sources in Vanni said. Mervin Silva, said to be a close friend of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is expected to be offered a high position in the Rehabilitation Ministry for the North, political observers in Jaffna said.
Mervin Silva visited Raamaavil camp in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi where around 2500 persons uprooted from Mullaiththeevu and Vadamaraadchi East are held without being allowed to resettle in their own places.
The controversial Deputy Minister had earlier made a public proclamation that he would tie up any official to a tree, if anyone died of Dengue fever in his electorate and he carried out his warning on August 3 by ordering his supporters to tie a Samurdhi officer to a tree in the presence of media personnel specially invited for the event.
Jim,
I’m glad you have decided to talk with SLG. May be we could arrange you to appear in front of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission?
In the mean time you should read what your good friend Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission.
Part 1 & 2.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/t…
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/t…
Jim,
I’m glad you have decided to talk with SLG. May be we could arrange you to appear in front of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission?
In the mean time you should read what your good friend Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission.
Part 1 & 2.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/t…
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/t…
What Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission…
Part 3.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/t…
“However I believe there is at least one instance in which the state should have taken legal action, and our failure to do this has prompted blanket criticism which is not warranted, and distrust which, if not warranted, is understandable. I refer to the case of the killing of five youngsters in Trincomalee in 2006. I have long urged that indictments should be issued in that case. I respect the response of the Attorney General at the time, that a prosecution would not be successful because the evidence was incomplete, but my point was that there was need of a clear message that such conduct was not acceptable.”
You see Jim, his testimony was not all-pro government, but he was not arrested, shot at or phoned by the secret services in the middle of the night.
So WHAT DO YOU SAY JIM?
PS – I’ve heard that the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, is taking US tourists on a promotional trip to SRI Lanka. If you are interested please let us know!
“Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya said another intention of the programme is to promote cultural ties between the two countries. He pointed out that Americans will be able to witness the peaceful environment prevailing in the country.”
http://www.vivalanka.com/news/page.jsp?articleid=…
What Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission…
Part 3.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/t…
“However I believe there is at least one instance in which the state should have taken legal action, and our failure to do this has prompted blanket criticism which is not warranted, and distrust which, if not warranted, is understandable. I refer to the case of the killing of five youngsters in Trincomalee in 2006. I have long urged that indictments should be issued in that case. I respect the response of the Attorney General at the time, that a prosecution would not be successful because the evidence was incomplete, but my point was that there was need of a clear message that such conduct was not acceptable.”
You see Jim, his testimony was not all-pro government, but he was not arrested, shot at or phoned by the secret services in the middle of the night.
So WHAT DO YOU SAY JIM?
PS – I’ve heard that the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, is taking US tourists on a promotional trip to SRI Lanka. If you are interested please let us know!
“Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya said another intention of the programme is to promote cultural ties between the two countries. He pointed out that Americans will be able to witness the peaceful environment prevailing in the country.”
http://www.vivalanka.com/news/page.jsp?articleid=…
Tasty Eelam Sushi – Wish You Were Here
Whatever their other faults (e.g. supporting racist terrorists, encouraging human trafficking and whining a lot), the Canadian Tamil Congress certainly know how to PARTY! They really can boogie.
http://tinyurl.com/38pbvj5
With Sushi and a Canape in one hand an AK-47 in the other, the CTC's prosperous warrriors will most certainly achieve Eelam in Sri Lanka. Just wait and see.
A plate of canapes and sushi would probably feed a displaced family in the Vanni for a week.
@ Guanalan: Oh dear.. a little bit annoyed? You really shouldn't advertise your secret desires in an open forum. I know AI won't mind, but your fellow Puligal Warriors might not like it. Thalivar will be looking up from his pit in hell wondering what he deserved to have followers like you 🙂
Tasty Eelam Sushi – Wish You Were Here
Whatever their other faults (e.g. supporting racist terrorists, encouraging human trafficking and whining a lot), the Canadian Tamil Congress certainly know how to PARTY! They really can boogie.
http://tinyurl.com/38pbvj5
With Sushi and a Canape in one hand an AK-47 in the other, the CTC's prosperous warrriors will most certainly achieve Eelam in Sri Lanka. Just wait and see.
A plate of canapes and sushi would probably feed a displaced family in the Vanni for a week.
@ Guanalan: Oh dear.. a little bit annoyed? You really shouldn't advertise your secret desires in an open forum. I know AI won't mind, but your fellow Puligal Warriors might not like it. Thalivar will be looking up from his pit in hell wondering what he deserved to have followers like you 🙂
Rip van Winkle
As for those so called Sinhalese names he mentions they are not Sinhalese names but Sinhalised versions of old Tamil place names.
Trying to portray ancient Tamil Buddhism in the North and East, and pass it as Sinhalese Buddhism to suit Sinhala nationalism is now the fad, to justify their genocide and ethnic cleansing activities.
Ethnicity of the population at various parts of the island changed with the time and rulers. Many of the so called present day Sinhalese until very recently were either Tamil Hindus or Catholics and the ethnicity in the North Central, Vanni Kurunegala , North western parts, parts of the east and Kandyan areas changed over the years at times was, Tamil Hindu.
Other times, they were the Sinhalese Buddhist. Depending on who ruled and the latest influence. However the ethnicity in Jaffna the coastal parts of the east, the Northern parts of the Vanni and coastal parts of the north west (Chilaw ,Puttlam, Negombo) until recently had always been Tamil. It was only in the hinterland that ethnicity changed. However after the European conquest many Tamils living along the southern and western coast became Sinhalese and some Sinhalese in the Vanni and Eastern hinterland became Tamils. However, more Tamils became Sinhalese… than the other way around.
A constructive dialogue between AI & GOSL?
Jim,
Would this dialogue discuss the innumerable attempts made by AI (in co-ordination with your buddies at HRW, EU etc) to punish SL for its’ real and imagined mis-deeds during Eelam War 4, whilst simultaneously ignoring far worse crimes committed by the Western bloc in its Mid-Eastern misadventures?
In case you’d forgotten, my ‘Top 5 AI Attacks on Sri Lanka’ include the following:
• The ill-advised anti-SL cricket team ‘Play by the Rules’ campaign in 2007
• Jim’s fake ‘Cluster Bomb’ story in 2009
• Trying and failing to punish SL at the UNHRC in May 2009
• AI spokesdroid Sam Zafiri’s attacks on SL in the last stages of Eelam War 4
• Supporting US Representatives’ spurious war crimes charges against SL without asking the US to be held to the same standard.
If the GOSL is making friends with KP, I’m sure they’ll be able to do the same with AI. But, AI has to show that its changed its Pavlovian anti-SL reflexes. Judging by AI’s recent blog posts and official statements…. not yet.
Eelamish ‘Democracy’ in action in Canada
Kumar Nadarajah, who runs a Tamil radio station in Scarborough and a .. candidate for a Toronto council seat says he withdrew from the race after being threatened by people seeking to run a rival candidate in the Oct. 25 municipal election.
…Nadarajah … received threatening phone calls from men who urged him to resign. He quit the race Jan. 13.
They said: ‘Well, we’re putting our candidate in,’ ” he said in a recent interview. “We want our candidate on the scene and we want to have some political agenda there.’ “
Nadarajah said he withdrew because he feared for his safety and for his family.
“They will jeopardize my business,” he said, recounting what the callers told him. “Or they will threaten my business. Or they will throw stones at my house. Or they will smash my car.”
He would not identify the men or organization that threatened him, but another candidate in Ward 42 said it was members of the high-profile Canadian Tamil Congress.” http://www.openfile.ca/node/985/
Ah, yes, David Poop-in-Pants of the CTC’s been very busy, no?
• Supporting the LTTE
• Encouraging human smuggling
• Fixing elections..
Heil Eelam, Sieg Heil!
Good Luck, Canada! You got ’em, you keep ’em 🙂 🙂
Eelam delenda est
I wonder, why they called you …..your dear daddy a pullu sappi ???
Another complaint about the Tamil refugees is that they came to Canada and didn't go to countries closer to their homeland.
But the UN refugee agency's latest figures show that of the 146,098 refugees now identified as being from Sri Lanka, 126,955 did go to other countries.
In fact, 73,000 — about half — went to India. Tamil refugees seeking asylum are distributed across 57 countries.
So, there is no playing Canada for the patsy.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tamils+taking+ad…
In the case of Sri Lanka, UNHCR has recently issued revised guidelines to assist decision-makers in reviewing claims to asylum. Those guidelines include our recommendation that in light of the improved security situation since the end of Sri Lanka's conflict in May 2009, claims by asylum seekers from that country should be considered on their individual merits rather than on a group basis.
According to UNHCR's most recent statistics, there are a total of 146,098 Sri Lanka refugees in 64 countries.
India (73,269),
France (20,464),
Canada (19,143),
Germany (12,248),
United Kingdom (8,615),
Switzerland (2,836),
Malaysia (2,132),
Australia (2,070),
United States (1,561)
Italy (964)
are the top 10 countries hosting Sri Lankan refugees.
There are also 7,562 Sri Lankan asylum seekers known to UNHCR in 57 countries. The top ten countries hosting Sri Lankan asylum- seekers are: Switzerland, Malaysia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Thailand, US, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. Last year, 34,000 new asylum seekers submitted their claims in Canada.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FERB…
A top LTTE operative, deeply involved in the LTTE arms smuggling operations throughout the war, is believed to have taken MV ‘Sun Sea’ from Thailand to Canada. The voyage took three months while several navies in the region watched allowing the 59-metre vessel, modified for the purpose, make its way to Canadian waters.
Military sources identified the LTTEer as Vinod, widely considered to be among an elite group of cadres responsible for perhaps one of the biggest clandestine arms smuggling operations in the past few decades.
Sources say Vinod and two of his colleagues, identified as Kamal and Gaya, played a pivotal role in the arms smuggling operation, which facilitated transfer of weapons of Chinese origin and other armaments to north-east Sri Lanka.
Sources say Kamal, one of the most experienced LTTE operatives involved with arms smuggling operations took MV Ocean Lady from Mundra (an Indian port) to Canada last October. MV Ocean Lady carried 76 persons.
Kamal is now in Canada.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
Another complaint about the Tamil refugees is that they came to Canada and didn't go to countries closer to their homeland.
But the UN refugee agency's latest figures show that of the 146,098 refugees now identified as being from Sri Lanka, 126,955 did go to other countries.
In fact, 73,000 — about half — went to India. Tamil refugees seeking asylum are distributed across 57 countries.
So, there is no playing Canada for the patsy.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tamils+taking+ad…
Another complaint about the Tamil refugees is that they came to Canada and didn't go to countries closer to their homeland.
But the UN refugee agency's latest figures show that of the 146,098 refugees now identified as being from Sri Lanka, 126,955 did go to other countries.
In fact, 73,000 — about half — went to India. Tamil refugees seeking asylum are distributed across 57 countries.
So, there is no playing Canada for the patsy.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tamils+taking+ad…
In the case of Sri Lanka, UNHCR has recently issued revised guidelines to assist decision-makers in reviewing claims to asylum. Those guidelines include our recommendation that in light of the improved security situation since the end of Sri Lanka's conflict in May 2009, claims by asylum seekers from that country should be considered on their individual merits rather than on a group basis.
According to UNHCR's most recent statistics, there are a total of 146,098 Sri Lanka refugees in 64 countries.
India (73,269),
France (20,464),
Canada (19,143),
Germany (12,248),
United Kingdom (8,615),
Switzerland (2,836),
Malaysia (2,132),
Australia (2,070),
United States (1,561)
Italy (964)
are the top 10 countries hosting Sri Lankan refugees.
There are also 7,562 Sri Lankan asylum seekers known to UNHCR in 57 countries. The top ten countries hosting Sri Lankan asylum- seekers are: Switzerland, Malaysia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Thailand, US, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. Last year, 34,000 new asylum seekers submitted their claims in Canada.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FERB…
In the case of Sri Lanka, UNHCR has recently issued revised guidelines to assist decision-makers in reviewing claims to asylum. Those guidelines include our recommendation that in light of the improved security situation since the end of Sri Lanka's conflict in May 2009, claims by asylum seekers from that country should be considered on their individual merits rather than on a group basis.
According to UNHCR's most recent statistics, there are a total of 146,098 Sri Lanka refugees in 64 countries.
India (73,269),
France (20,464),
Canada (19,143),
Germany (12,248),
United Kingdom (8,615),
Switzerland (2,836),
Malaysia (2,132),
Australia (2,070),
United States (1,561)
Italy (964)
are the top 10 countries hosting Sri Lankan refugees.
There are also 7,562 Sri Lankan asylum seekers known to UNHCR in 57 countries. The top ten countries hosting Sri Lankan asylum- seekers are: Switzerland, Malaysia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Thailand, US, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. Last year, 34,000 new asylum seekers submitted their claims in Canada.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FERB…
Sri Lanka appointed many commissions called the Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into Involuntary Removals and Disappearances of Persons, sofar no one convicted, it is an eyewash. Many people reported missing in Sri Lanka have never been located and are presumed dead. How many more people need to go missing in Sri Lanka?
now new commission called Kadira commission??
Two Tamil asylum seekers were detained in October 2009 at Christmas Island, trying to reach Australia by boat. An immigration department official assessed their cases and asylum was rejected; as a result, they faced deportation back to Sri Lanka.
Now the asylum seekers, identified only as M61 and M69, are pleading a lack of procedural fairness because the immigration minister failed to personally consider their cases!
The two Tamils fear persecution from the Sri Lankan army, agents of the government and paramilitary groups because of their alleged support for the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam,
How many of our 492, 100% genuine refugees, will change their story if they face deportation?
Watch this S p a c e !
A top LTTE operative, deeply involved in the LTTE arms smuggling operations throughout the war, is believed to have taken MV ‘Sun Sea’ from Thailand to Canada. The voyage took three months while several navies in the region watched allowing the 59-metre vessel, modified for the purpose, make its way to Canadian waters.
Military sources identified the LTTEer as Vinod, widely considered to be among an elite group of cadres responsible for perhaps one of the biggest clandestine arms smuggling operations in the past few decades.
Sources say Vinod and two of his colleagues, identified as Kamal and Gaya, played a pivotal role in the arms smuggling operation, which facilitated transfer of weapons of Chinese origin and other armaments to north-east Sri Lanka.
Sources say Kamal, one of the most experienced LTTE operatives involved with arms smuggling operations took MV Ocean Lady from Mundra (an Indian port) to Canada last October. MV Ocean Lady carried 76 persons.
Kamal is now in Canada.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
A top LTTE operative, deeply involved in the LTTE arms smuggling operations throughout the war, is believed to have taken MV ‘Sun Sea’ from Thailand to Canada. The voyage took three months while several navies in the region watched allowing the 59-metre vessel, modified for the purpose, make its way to Canadian waters.
Military sources identified the LTTEer as Vinod, widely considered to be among an elite group of cadres responsible for perhaps one of the biggest clandestine arms smuggling operations in the past few decades.
Sources say Vinod and two of his colleagues, identified as Kamal and Gaya, played a pivotal role in the arms smuggling operation, which facilitated transfer of weapons of Chinese origin and other armaments to north-east Sri Lanka.
Sources say Kamal, one of the most experienced LTTE operatives involved with arms smuggling operations took MV Ocean Lady from Mundra (an Indian port) to Canada last October. MV Ocean Lady carried 76 persons.
Kamal is now in Canada.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
Sri Lanka's Luck – just look at Iraq
Anybody tempted to take for granted, what Sri Lanka achieved in crushing the LTTE, despite the fierce opposition from the LTTE's fellow travellers in the Western bloc should read this in The Guardian:
"Today …. Iraqis leave home unsure if they will return to their families that evening or not. .. If they are lucky their children or nephews and nieces are not yet kidnapped and if they are extremely lucky they haven't had more than one relative martyred in a suicide attack."
"… how desperate they are to live a day without hearing a bomb, without being at risk of kidnapping and to have more than just a few hours of electricity every day.
Iraqi interior ministry revealed that the country had its deadliest month for two years in July, with more than 1,500 casualties. A single suicide attack on an army recruitment centre in Baghdad last week killed 57 people and wounded 123."
http://tinyurl.com/33gfszj
Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires. Only a year ago, we witnessed this, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, of the LTTE in its death throes.
"In recent weeks (March 2009) gangs of Tiger gunmen have been roaming civilian camps under their control, at first taking one recruit from each family and then grabbing anyone over 14, putting a gun in their hands and forcing them to the frontline – where their life expectancy can be measured in days, or sometimes hours." http://tinyurl.com/d55ep3
And the people who brought Iraq to this state of murderous anarchy now seek to lecture us in Sri Lanka?
UN mum on post
http://www.dailymirror.lk/index.php/news/6086-un-mum-on-post.html
The United Nations (UN) refused to comment on the appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the new Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
When asked about the appointment at a press briefing in New York, Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to comment. The spokesman was also asked if UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon can refuse to accept the appointment but the UN spokesman said he needed to check on the general procedure.
Major General Silva’s appointment to the UN comes amidst human rights allegations being raised against the government and the military which resulted in UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Fonseka was later indicted in Court over his claims.
Meanwhile the UN spokesman said that the panel appointed by the UN Chief to advice him on matters relating to Sri Lanka will meet “soon” but did not give a specific date as to by when they will officially commence work
Measures to address Tamil refugee issues recommended
http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/201008253403/Measures-to-address-Tamil-refugee-issues-recommended.html
Toronto – As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Let us learn from our past. As discussed in our coming National Holocaust Task Force Student Resource on the history of Canadian immigration policy, there have been tragic incidents in Canada’s not-so-distant history, where boatloads of refugees were turned away from our shores due to attitudes laced with racism.
“We should remember the Komagata Maru and the MS St. Louis. In today’s world, there are certainly legitimate concerns that must be addressed such as security threats and the horrors of human smuggling, but right now the refugee determination system can address questions relating to refugees who have already reached Canada.”
David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, added, “There are several additional measures that Canada should consider immediately to address the underlying issues: adding Sri Lanka to the source country class so that Sri Lankans could seek the protection of Canada while overseas, pressing the government of Sri Lanka to end human rights violations against its minority population and urging the government of Thailand – from where some of the boat people come – to sign and ratify the UN Refugee Convention.”
“Safeguards come not from shutting the door on human suffering, but from addressing the real issues head-on,” concluded Dimant.
To the original question, "should the fake Sri Lankan asylum-seekers deserve hearings?"
My answer is a resolute, Yes. We know they'll lie through their back teeth about the non-existing genocide and the rest of it.
Then they can stay in Canada and add to the existing waiting-for-Eelam community. I'm sure quite a few non-Tamils from SL will then change their surnames, pretend to be 'pursued' and take a leaky boat to Canada via Thailand, Malaysia or Laos.
p.s. posting earlier as Mango.
p.p.s where's my new friend, Gunalan?
Jim,
I’m glad you have decided to talk with SLG. May be we could arrange you to appear in front of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission?
In the mean time you should read what your good friend Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission.
Part 1 & 2.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/testimony-before-the-lessons-learnt-and-reconciliation-commission-part-1/
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/testimony-before-the-lessons-learnt-and-reconciliation-commission-%e2%80%93-part-2/
What Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said at the commission…
Part 3.
http://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/testimony-before-the-lessons-learnt-and-reconciliation-commission-%e2%80%93-part-3/
“However I believe there is at least one instance in which the state should have taken legal action, and our failure to do this has prompted blanket criticism which is not warranted, and distrust which, if not warranted, is understandable. I refer to the case of the killing of five youngsters in Trincomalee in 2006. I have long urged that indictments should be issued in that case. I respect the response of the Attorney General at the time, that a prosecution would not be successful because the evidence was incomplete, but my point was that there was need of a clear message that such conduct was not acceptable.”
You see Jim, his testimony was not all-pro government, but he was not arrested, shot at or phoned by the secret services in the middle of the night.
So WHAT DO YOU SAY JIM?
PS – I’ve heard that the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, is taking US tourists on a promotional trip to SRI Lanka. If you are interested please let us know!
“Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya said another intention of the programme is to promote cultural ties between the two countries. He pointed out that Americans will be able to witness the peaceful environment prevailing in the country.”
http://www.vivalanka.com/news/page.jsp?articleid=100238
Tasty Eelam Sushi – Wish You Were Here
Whatever their other faults (e.g. supporting racist terrorists, encouraging human trafficking and whining a lot), the Canadian Tamil Congress certainly know how to PARTY! They really can boogie.
http://tinyurl.com/38pbvj5
With Sushi and a Canape in one hand an AK-47 in the other, the CTC’s prosperous warrriors will most certainly achieve Eelam in Sri Lanka. Just wait and see.
A plate of canapes and sushi would probably feed a displaced family in the Vanni for a week.
@ Guanalan: Oh dear.. a little bit annoyed? You really shouldn’t advertise your secret desires in an open forum. I know AI won’t mind, but your fellow Puligal Warriors might not like it. Thalivar will be looking up from his pit in hell wondering what he deserved to have followers like you 🙂
Sri Lanka's Luck – just look at Iraq
Anybody tempted to take for granted, what Sri Lanka achieved in crushing the LTTE, despite the fierce opposition from the LTTE's fellow travellers in the Western bloc should read this in The Guardian:
"Today …. Iraqis leave home unsure if they will return to their families that evening or not. .. If they are lucky their children or nephews and nieces are not yet kidnapped and if they are extremely lucky they haven't had more than one relative martyred in a suicide attack."
"… how desperate they are to live a day without hearing a bomb, without being at risk of kidnapping and to have more than just a few hours of electricity every day.
Iraqi interior ministry revealed that the country had its deadliest month for two years in July, with more than 1,500 casualties. A single suicide attack on an army recruitment centre in Baghdad last week killed 57 people and wounded 123."
http://tinyurl.com/33gfszj
Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires. Only a year ago, we witnessed this, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, of the LTTE in its death throes.
"In recent weeks (March 2009) gangs of Tiger gunmen have been roaming civilian camps under their control, at first taking one recruit from each family and then grabbing anyone over 14, putting a gun in their hands and forcing them to the frontline – where their life expectancy can be measured in days, or sometimes hours." http://tinyurl.com/d55ep3
And the people who brought Iraq to this state of murderous anarchy now seek to lecture us in Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka's Luck – just look at Iraq
Anybody tempted to take for granted, what Sri Lanka achieved in crushing the LTTE, despite the fierce opposition from the LTTE's fellow travellers in the Western bloc should read this in The Guardian:
"Today …. Iraqis leave home unsure if they will return to their families that evening or not. .. If they are lucky their children or nephews and nieces are not yet kidnapped and if they are extremely lucky they haven't had more than one relative martyred in a suicide attack."
"… how desperate they are to live a day without hearing a bomb, without being at risk of kidnapping and to have more than just a few hours of electricity every day.
Iraqi interior ministry revealed that the country had its deadliest month for two years in July, with more than 1,500 casualties. A single suicide attack on an army recruitment centre in Baghdad last week killed 57 people and wounded 123."
http://tinyurl.com/33gfszj
Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires. Only a year ago, we witnessed this, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, of the LTTE in its death throes.
"In recent weeks (March 2009) gangs of Tiger gunmen have been roaming civilian camps under their control, at first taking one recruit from each family and then grabbing anyone over 14, putting a gun in their hands and forcing them to the frontline – where their life expectancy can be measured in days, or sometimes hours." http://tinyurl.com/d55ep3
And the people who brought Iraq to this state of murderous anarchy now seek to lecture us in Sri Lanka?
Eelam delenda est
August 26th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
To the original question, “should the fake Sri Lankan asylum-seekers deserve hearings?”
My answer is a resolute, Yes. We know they’ll lie through their back teeth about the non-existing genocide and the rest of it.
—————————————————-
This is not fair to call Tamil refugees as a liars !! 🙁
How about a few facts?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says there is no upsurge in asylum seekers trying to get into the rich countries of the world.
Analyzing its exhaustive statistics, the UN agency says the numbers of asylum seekers remain stable and that while they did increase in some countries they fell precipitously in others.
Nineteen countries posted increases, 25 countries registered declines. But on average, little change.
Scandinavian countries got the largest number of asylum applications with 51,100 in 2009, an increase of 13 per cent over 2008, the highest upswing in six years.
However, refugee claims fell sharply in southern Europe, in some places, Italy, for example, by as much as 42 per cent.
How about Canada?
This country, although commendably ranked third for its acceptance of refugees, saw the number of asylum seekers drop by 10 per cent, mostly due to declining claims from Haiti and Mexico
In 2009, about 34,000 refugees came to Canada
So 490 refugees are ..only 1.5 % only !! 🙂
Sri Lanka false propagandists… manage to create a storm in teacup !! 🙂 🙂 🙂
The three highest rates were for three of the most dangerous regions on the planet, Somalia at 93 per cent, Eritrea at 94 per cent and Sri Lanka at 92 per cent.
If the current subjugation of Tamils continues there won’t be anyone in Sri Lanka in future even to read what these academics have written in Tamil.
long as Sinhala nationalist mindset deny the antiquity and right of Eezham Tamil nation in the island and unable to come out with appropriate political models, no ‘reconciliation’ will be possible and there will be only subjugation.
Rajapaksa is advocating for settling Sinhala soldiers and their families in the ‘conquered’ land of the Tamils.
“It is repulsive to see the Sinhalese mutilating and desecrating the Tamill names of places which people of the land coined through their long interaction with their environment, such as Aazhiya-va’lai, meaning the coastal enclave.
Have they ever thought how did Sinhala get the word Weli for sand?“
“Have they ever tried to comprehend how the names are pronounced and spelt in Tamil and what they really mean?
Which language is the place name Ko’la Patuna (Kozhu-pattinam, meaning the port-town at the point) found in the garb of Pali in the chronicles, where the Asokan Budhist emissaries landed in the island, and then who might have been living there at that time?”
But this bunch of people are not genuinely interested in History.
By hook or by crook, by war or by peace, by threat or by sugar-coated approaches, Eezham Tamils have to be subjugated, made to feel inferior in culture to the Sinhalese and be Sinhalicised for the ultimate conquest of Sinhala nationalism of the island.
The Sinhalese can rather tell their intentions plainly without victimising history”
Gunalan, my friend,
When we walk through the world, wherever we go, we turn.
& look back.
Again.
Again.
To remember the way we came.
So we won't forget.
And can return, some day, where we began.
Your People's songs, today.
They will help the unborn, one day, to find the way.
The way going back.
From where you came.
The song will tell them,
"This …. is the place."
Vishnu, brother,
You make the connection.
Between the whites who oppose the return of the indigenous from the central to the north of america.
And the whites who oppose your People's coming here for shelter from the storm.
But when you know where you're coming from, you don't say,"All are outsiders."
In the land where you began, you are not.
You are the First Nation there.
So too on Turtle Island.
The Indigenous are not outsiders here, where your People come now for shelter.
They belong from the beginning.
"Massacre of Tamils ….. from 1956", my relation,
Indebted for your detailing of your People's road from the massacres then
to the genocide now.
A single body of Holocaust.
& to all my Tamil relations,
Gratitude for the wealth of experience in your voices.
The future is listening to you.
Thamilan, dear friend,
i ask your song, Tell me of the wind on which you wander !
i will listen to the wind to bring your voice again.
Another complaint about the Tamil refugees is that they came to Canada and didn’t go to countries closer to their homeland.
But the UN refugee agency’s latest figures show that of the 146,098 refugees now identified as being from Sri Lanka, 126,955 did go to other countries.
In fact, 73,000 — about half — went to India. Tamil refugees seeking asylum are distributed across 57 countries.
So, there is no playing Canada for the patsy.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tamils+taking+advantage+Canada+Facts+tell+different+story/3444980/story.html#ixzz0xkMjEd5h
In the case of Sri Lanka, UNHCR has recently issued revised guidelines to assist decision-makers in reviewing claims to asylum. Those guidelines include our recommendation that in light of the improved security situation since the end of Sri Lanka’s conflict in May 2009, claims by asylum seekers from that country should be considered on their individual merits rather than on a group basis.
According to UNHCR’s most recent statistics, there are a total of 146,098 Sri Lanka refugees in 64 countries.
India (73,269),
France (20,464),
Canada (19,143),
Germany (12,248),
United Kingdom (8,615),
Switzerland (2,836),
Malaysia (2,132),
Australia (2,070),
United States (1,561)
Italy (964)
are the top 10 countries hosting Sri Lankan refugees.
There are also 7,562 Sri Lankan asylum seekers known to UNHCR in 57 countries. The top ten countries hosting Sri Lankan asylum- seekers are: Switzerland, Malaysia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Thailand, US, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. Last year, 34,000 new asylum seekers submitted their claims in Canada.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FERB-88EGLQ?OpenDocument
Sri Lanka appointed many commissions called the Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into Involuntary Removals and Disappearances of Persons, sofar no one convicted, it is an eyewash. Many people reported missing in Sri Lanka have never been located and are presumed dead. How many more people need to go missing in Sri Lanka?
now new commission called Kadira commission??
Two Tamil asylum seekers were detained in October 2009 at Christmas Island, trying to reach Australia by boat. An immigration department official assessed their cases and asylum was rejected; as a result, they faced deportation back to Sri Lanka.
Now the asylum seekers, identified only as M61 and M69, are pleading a lack of procedural fairness because the immigration minister failed to personally consider their cases!
The two Tamils fear persecution from the Sri Lankan army, agents of the government and paramilitary groups because of their alleged support for the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam,
How many of our 492, 100% genuine refugees, will change their story if they face deportation?
Watch this S p a c e !
A top LTTE operative, deeply involved in the LTTE arms smuggling operations throughout the war, is believed to have taken MV ‘Sun Sea’ from Thailand to Canada. The voyage took three months while several navies in the region watched allowing the 59-metre vessel, modified for the purpose, make its way to Canadian waters.
Military sources identified the LTTEer as Vinod, widely considered to be among an elite group of cadres responsible for perhaps one of the biggest clandestine arms smuggling operations in the past few decades.
Sources say Vinod and two of his colleagues, identified as Kamal and Gaya, played a pivotal role in the arms smuggling operation, which facilitated transfer of weapons of Chinese origin and other armaments to north-east Sri Lanka.
Sources say Kamal, one of the most experienced LTTE operatives involved with arms smuggling operations took MV Ocean Lady from Mundra (an Indian port) to Canada last October. MV Ocean Lady carried 76 persons.
Kamal is now in Canada.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=4857
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nation's post in New York, vacant following the recall of previous DPR, Bandula Jayasekera, after an alleged sexual harassment scandal, is reported to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, former 58th Division commander, who has been accused of committing war crimes by his former General Sarath Fonseka, Inner City Press reported. Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, commenting on this reported UN job said, "the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is trying to sanitize and immunize their genocidaires/war criminals and thus regularize it all."
Sri Lanka's presumptive war-criminal to take UN job in New York http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
To the original question, “should the fake Sri Lankan asylum-seekers deserve hearings?”
My answer is a resolute, Yes. We know they’ll lie through their back teeth about the non-existing genocide and the rest of it.
Then they can stay in Canada and add to the existing waiting-for-Eelam community. I’m sure quite a few non-Tamils from SL will then change their surnames, pretend to be ‘pursued’ and take a leaky boat to Canada via Thailand, Malaysia or Laos.
p.s. posting earlier as Mango.
p.p.s where’s my new friend, Gunalan?
On Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Speaks of Gov't Shelling, Casualties, 2 Sides' Propaganda http://www.innercitypress.com/sri2holmes082610.ht…
Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department's funding of the government's internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals. Video here, from Minute
Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers. Video here, from Minute 14:30.
Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.
He said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.
Sri Lanka’s Luck – just look at Iraq
Anybody tempted to take for granted, what Sri Lanka achieved in crushing the LTTE, despite the fierce opposition from the LTTE’s fellow travellers in the Western bloc should read this in The Guardian:
“Today …. Iraqis leave home unsure if they will return to their families that evening or not. .. If they are lucky their children or nephews and nieces are not yet kidnapped and if they are extremely lucky they haven’t had more than one relative martyred in a suicide attack.”
“… how desperate they are to live a day without hearing a bomb, without being at risk of kidnapping and to have more than just a few hours of electricity every day.
Iraqi interior ministry revealed that the country had its deadliest month for two years in July, with more than 1,500 casualties. A single suicide attack on an army recruitment centre in Baghdad last week killed 57 people and wounded 123.”
http://tinyurl.com/33gfszj
Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires. Only a year ago, we witnessed this, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, of the LTTE in its death throes.
“In recent weeks (March 2009) gangs of Tiger gunmen have been roaming civilian camps under their control, at first taking one recruit from each family and then grabbing anyone over 14, putting a gun in their hands and forcing them to the frontline – where their life expectancy can be measured in days, or sometimes hours.” http://tinyurl.com/d55ep3
And the people who brought Iraq to this state of murderous anarchy now seek to lecture us in Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nation's post in New York, vacant following the recall of previous DPR, Bandula Jayasekera, after an alleged sexual harassment scandal, is reported to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, former 58th Division commander, who has been accused of committing war crimes by his former General Sarath Fonseka, Inner City Press reported. Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, commenting on this reported UN job said, "the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is trying to sanitize and immunize their genocidaires/war criminals and thus regularize it all."
Sri Lanka's presumptive war-criminal to take UN job in New York http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nation's post in New York, vacant following the recall of previous DPR, Bandula Jayasekera, after an alleged sexual harassment scandal, is reported to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, former 58th Division commander, who has been accused of committing war crimes by his former General Sarath Fonseka, Inner City Press reported. Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, commenting on this reported UN job said, "the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is trying to sanitize and immunize their genocidaires/war criminals and thus regularize it all."
Sri Lanka's presumptive war-criminal to take UN job in New York http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
On Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Speaks of Gov't Shelling, Casualties, 2 Sides' Propaganda http://www.innercitypress.com/sri2holmes082610.ht…
Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department's funding of the government's internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals. Video here, from Minute
Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers. Video here, from Minute 14:30.
Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.
He said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.
On Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Speaks of Gov't Shelling, Casualties, 2 Sides' Propaganda http://www.innercitypress.com/sri2holmes082610.ht…
Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department's funding of the government's internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals. Video here, from Minute
Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers. Video here, from Minute 14:30.
Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.
He said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.
Eelam delenda est
August 26th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
To the original question, “should the fake Sri Lankan asylum-seekers deserve hearings?”
My answer is a resolute, Yes. We know they’ll lie through their back teeth about the non-existing genocide and the rest of it.
—————————————————-
This is not fair to call Tamil refugees as a liars !! 🙁
How about a few facts?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says there is no upsurge in asylum seekers trying to get into the rich countries of the world.
Analyzing its exhaustive statistics, the UN agency says the numbers of asylum seekers remain stable and that while they did increase in some countries they fell precipitously in others.
Nineteen countries posted increases, 25 countries registered declines. But on average, little change.
Scandinavian countries got the largest number of asylum applications with 51,100 in 2009, an increase of 13 per cent over 2008, the highest upswing in six years.
However, refugee claims fell sharply in southern Europe, in some places, Italy, for example, by as much as 42 per cent.
How about Canada?
This country, although commendably ranked third for its acceptance of refugees, saw the number of asylum seekers drop by 10 per cent, mostly due to declining claims from Haiti and Mexico
In 2009, about 34,000 refugees came to Canada
So 490 refugees are ..only 1.5 % only !! 🙂
Sri Lanka false propagandists… manage to create a storm in teacup !! 🙂 🙂 🙂
The three highest rates were for three of the most dangerous regions on the planet, Somalia at 93 per cent, Eritrea at 94 per cent and Sri Lanka at 92 per cent.
If the current subjugation of Tamils continues there won’t be anyone in Sri Lanka in future even to read what these academics have written in Tamil.
long as Sinhala nationalist mindset deny the antiquity and right of Eezham Tamil nation in the island and unable to come out with appropriate political models, no ‘reconciliation’ will be possible and there will be only subjugation.
Rajapaksa is advocating for settling Sinhala soldiers and their families in the ‘conquered’ land of the Tamils.
“It is repulsive to see the Sinhalese mutilating and desecrating the Tamill names of places which people of the land coined through their long interaction with their environment, such as Aazhiya-va’lai, meaning the coastal enclave.
Have they ever thought how did Sinhala get the word Weli for sand?“
“Have they ever tried to comprehend how the names are pronounced and spelt in Tamil and what they really mean?
Which language is the place name Ko’la Patuna (Kozhu-pattinam, meaning the port-town at the point) found in the garb of Pali in the chronicles, where the Asokan Budhist emissaries landed in the island, and then who might have been living there at that time?”
But this bunch of people are not genuinely interested in History.
By hook or by crook, by war or by peace, by threat or by sugar-coated approaches, Eezham Tamils have to be subjugated, made to feel inferior in culture to the Sinhalese and be Sinhalicised for the ultimate conquest of Sinhala nationalism of the island.
The Sinhalese can rather tell their intentions plainly without victimising history”
Gunalan, my friend,
When we walk through the world, wherever we go, we turn.
& look back.
Again.
Again.
To remember the way we came.
So we won’t forget.
And can return, some day, where we began.
Your People’s songs, today.
They will help the unborn, one day, to find the way.
The way going back.
From where you came.
The song will tell them,
“This …. is the place.”
Vishnu, brother,
You make the connection.
Between the whites who oppose the return of the indigenous from the central to the north of america.
And the whites who oppose your People’s coming here for shelter from the storm.
But when you know where you’re coming from, you don’t say,”All are outsiders.”
In the land where you began, you are not.
You are the First Nation there.
So too on Turtle Island.
The Indigenous are not outsiders here, where your People come now for shelter.
They belong from the beginning.
“Massacre of Tamils ….. from 1956”, my relation,
Indebted for your detailing of your People’s road from the massacres then
to the genocide now.
A single body of Holocaust.
& to all my Tamil relations,
Gratitude for the wealth of experience in your voices.
The future is listening to you.
Thamilan, dear friend,
i ask your song, Tell me of the wind on which you wander !
i will listen to the wind to bring your voice again.
Keep dignity of Tamil refugees in mind during immigration debate – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, Vancouver
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller
The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship.
Some of the reaction has focused on the desperate individuals who have arrived on our shores, smuggled here to flee persecution in their homeland. There has been outcry, much of it hostile, about queue jumping, abuse of the system, and the need to keep Canada from being overrun with would-be refugees.
It is critical at this time to keep in mind the fundamental dignity of each human person, particularly these new arrivals. In his own life and ministry, Jesus identified himself with refugees and other marginalized groups: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).
Catholic Social Teaching is uncompromising on the rights of refugees, and these men, women and children must not become scapegoats in otherwise relevant debates over immigration policy, enforcement and reform.
While it is incumbent on responsible governments to establish the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to potential security risks, the Catholic Church maintains that people who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policies or natural disasters, as well as "internally displaced persons," must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection.
Canada has a well founded reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees, and a long history of welcoming those seeking a haven from injustice.
It has been well documented in recent years that one of the global consequences of overly restrictive immigration and refugee policies by industrialized countries has been an increase in human trafficking, particularly of women and children.
The United Nations has called people-smuggling the fastest-growing form of transnational organized crime.
Pope John Paul II warned against the tendency of affluent countries to “tighten their borders under pressure from a public opinion disturbed by the inconveniences that accompany the phenomena of immigration. Society finds itself having to deal with the 'clandestine' men and women in illegal situations, without any rights in a country that refuses to welcome them, victims of organized crime or of unscrupulous entrepreneurs." (Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, n 4.)
While the state must ensure immigration policy is subject to the requirements of the common good, such control must not inspired by selfish attitudes or "restrictive policies."
It is only just that as we discuss federal immigration policy, we keep in the forefront the men, women and children currently in detention – all of whom have risked their lives to escape persecution back home.
Before coming to Vancouver, Archbishop Miller served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the spiritual welfare of those who no longer are or who never have been members of a parish.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/keep_dignity_…
Am I blocked ??
Dear A. Savage
Please follow the link and you shall see my reply !!
http://windsthatchanged.blogspot.com/
Most of the building materials which were given by India to Tamil IDPs were stolen by the Sri Lanka Army.
Up to 90 % India donated goods IDP are stolen and sold off for profit .
So after 17 months of the broken promises, the result is the IDP families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly
Keep dignity of Tamil refugees in mind during immigration debate – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, Vancouver
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller
The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship.
Some of the reaction has focused on the desperate individuals who have arrived on our shores, smuggled here to flee persecution in their homeland. There has been outcry, much of it hostile, about queue jumping, abuse of the system, and the need to keep Canada from being overrun with would-be refugees.
It is critical at this time to keep in mind the fundamental dignity of each human person, particularly these new arrivals. In his own life and ministry, Jesus identified himself with refugees and other marginalized groups: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).
Catholic Social Teaching is uncompromising on the rights of refugees, and these men, women and children must not become scapegoats in otherwise relevant debates over immigration policy, enforcement and reform.
While it is incumbent on responsible governments to establish the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to potential security risks, the Catholic Church maintains that people who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policies or natural disasters, as well as "internally displaced persons," must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection.
Canada has a well founded reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees, and a long history of welcoming those seeking a haven from injustice.
It has been well documented in recent years that one of the global consequences of overly restrictive immigration and refugee policies by industrialized countries has been an increase in human trafficking, particularly of women and children.
The United Nations has called people-smuggling the fastest-growing form of transnational organized crime.
Pope John Paul II warned against the tendency of affluent countries to “tighten their borders under pressure from a public opinion disturbed by the inconveniences that accompany the phenomena of immigration. Society finds itself having to deal with the 'clandestine' men and women in illegal situations, without any rights in a country that refuses to welcome them, victims of organized crime or of unscrupulous entrepreneurs." (Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, n 4.)
While the state must ensure immigration policy is subject to the requirements of the common good, such control must not inspired by selfish attitudes or "restrictive policies."
It is only just that as we discuss federal immigration policy, we keep in the forefront the men, women and children currently in detention – all of whom have risked their lives to escape persecution back home.
Before coming to Vancouver, Archbishop Miller served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the spiritual welfare of those who no longer are or who never have been members of a parish.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/keep_dignity_…
Keep dignity of Tamil refugees in mind during immigration debate – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, Vancouver
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller
The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship.
Some of the reaction has focused on the desperate individuals who have arrived on our shores, smuggled here to flee persecution in their homeland. There has been outcry, much of it hostile, about queue jumping, abuse of the system, and the need to keep Canada from being overrun with would-be refugees.
It is critical at this time to keep in mind the fundamental dignity of each human person, particularly these new arrivals. In his own life and ministry, Jesus identified himself with refugees and other marginalized groups: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).
Catholic Social Teaching is uncompromising on the rights of refugees, and these men, women and children must not become scapegoats in otherwise relevant debates over immigration policy, enforcement and reform.
While it is incumbent on responsible governments to establish the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to potential security risks, the Catholic Church maintains that people who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policies or natural disasters, as well as "internally displaced persons," must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection.
Canada has a well founded reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees, and a long history of welcoming those seeking a haven from injustice.
It has been well documented in recent years that one of the global consequences of overly restrictive immigration and refugee policies by industrialized countries has been an increase in human trafficking, particularly of women and children.
The United Nations has called people-smuggling the fastest-growing form of transnational organized crime.
Pope John Paul II warned against the tendency of affluent countries to “tighten their borders under pressure from a public opinion disturbed by the inconveniences that accompany the phenomena of immigration. Society finds itself having to deal with the 'clandestine' men and women in illegal situations, without any rights in a country that refuses to welcome them, victims of organized crime or of unscrupulous entrepreneurs." (Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, n 4.)
While the state must ensure immigration policy is subject to the requirements of the common good, such control must not inspired by selfish attitudes or "restrictive policies."
It is only just that as we discuss federal immigration policy, we keep in the forefront the men, women and children currently in detention – all of whom have risked their lives to escape persecution back home.
Before coming to Vancouver, Archbishop Miller served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the spiritual welfare of those who no longer are or who never have been members of a parish.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/keep_dignity_…
Sorry A. Savage – had a reply to you, but I am blocked and cannot post it right now – let me find a way !
Dear A. Savage
Please follow the link and you shall see my reply !!
http://windsthatchanged.blogspot.com/
Dear A. Savage
Please follow the link and you shall see my reply !!
http://windsthatchanged.blogspot.com/
a.savage
August 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Your touching verses warmed my heart !!
I’m grateful for your kind reply .
Please be careful of the
Fake Thamilian
Thamilan
August 27th, 2010 at 2:10 am
And I think he is blocked by AI due to annoying obscenities , harassment of the AI members and outright fabrications 🙁
In the late 40s and the early 50s Ceylon had the highest per capita income in South Asia. We were ahead of Malaya, ahead of Thailand, ahead of Korea and we were just a few dollars behind Japan.
What held us back thereafter was one problem, and that was the problem of terrorism. As a Minister who has been involved in Government since 1994 – that is a long time; 16 years – I am personally aware that, whatever we tried to do during that period, however hard we tried, however pragmatic our policies were, there was a point beyond which we could not succeed, with regard to investment, with regard to trade or tourism because of the violence in the country.
The difference now is that this constraint has been consigned to the past, our country has been able to eradicate terrorism. It might seem to you, and indeed it is, a singular achievement. It is, therefore, worth pausing to reflect for a moment on how this became possible, because the gloomy prophesy that we heard all too often from the international community, was that it was simply not possible to prevail against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the field of battle.
Sri Lanka’s experience and its lessons for the world http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
I just hope his poetry is better than his knowledge of Sri lankan history.
I am amused that even some of the Sinhala on the forum find him quite insufferable, in addition to being an absolute charlatan.
He is annoying me with his nonsense which is aimed at promoting a his hidden racist agenda under the guise of fair reporting … 🙂
EDE – August 26th, 2010 at 5:43 pm said:
"Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires"
Yes my friend, as GLP said the other day:
Many people in public life in Sri Lanka did suffer very grave injuries, and some lost their lives, as a result of the violence that was perpetrated in our country. In fact, at that time typically, if a family had to travel using public transport, it would be very unusual for husband and wife to travel together by bus or by train. The mother would go by bus and the father would go by train because they wanted to make certain that, if one of them was killed, at least there would be one parent living to look after the child.
I say this to indicate to you what the mindset of the public was at that time. When the husband went to work in the morning or the child went to school, there was no assurance that they would come home unharmed or indeed alive, in the evening. There was so much uncertainty.
In the late 40s and the early 50s Ceylon had the highest per capita income in South Asia. We were ahead of Malaya, ahead of Thailand, ahead of Korea and we were just a few dollars behind Japan.
What held us back thereafter was one problem, and that was the problem of terrorism. As a Minister who has been involved in Government since 1994 – that is a long time; 16 years – I am personally aware that, whatever we tried to do during that period, however hard we tried, however pragmatic our policies were, there was a point beyond which we could not succeed, with regard to investment, with regard to trade or tourism because of the violence in the country.
The difference now is that this constraint has been consigned to the past, our country has been able to eradicate terrorism. It might seem to you, and indeed it is, a singular achievement. It is, therefore, worth pausing to reflect for a moment on how this became possible, because the gloomy prophesy that we heard all too often from the international community, was that it was simply not possible to prevail against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the field of battle.
Sri Lanka’s experience and its lessons for the world http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
In the late 40s and the early 50s Ceylon had the highest per capita income in South Asia. We were ahead of Malaya, ahead of Thailand, ahead of Korea and we were just a few dollars behind Japan.
What held us back thereafter was one problem, and that was the problem of terrorism. As a Minister who has been involved in Government since 1994 – that is a long time; 16 years – I am personally aware that, whatever we tried to do during that period, however hard we tried, however pragmatic our policies were, there was a point beyond which we could not succeed, with regard to investment, with regard to trade or tourism because of the violence in the country.
The difference now is that this constraint has been consigned to the past, our country has been able to eradicate terrorism. It might seem to you, and indeed it is, a singular achievement. It is, therefore, worth pausing to reflect for a moment on how this became possible, because the gloomy prophesy that we heard all too often from the international community, was that it was simply not possible to prevail against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the field of battle.
Sri Lanka’s experience and its lessons for the world http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-d…
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nation’s post in New York, vacant following the recall of previous DPR, Bandula Jayasekera, after an alleged sexual harassment scandal, is reported to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, former 58th Division commander, who has been accused of committing war crimes by his former General Sarath Fonseka, Inner City Press reported. Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, commenting on this reported UN job said, “the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is trying to sanitize and immunize their genocidaires/war criminals and thus regularize it all.”
Sri Lanka’s presumptive war-criminal to take UN job in New York
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=32490
On Sri Lanka, UN’s Holmes Speaks of Gov’t Shelling, Casualties, 2 Sides’ Propaganda
http://www.innercitypress.com/sri2holmes082610.html
Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department’s funding of the government’s internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals. Video here, from Minute
Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers. Video here, from Minute 14:30.
Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.
He said there’s a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.
I am not blocked A. Savage. I just realized that AI is not allowing a bit of rhyming poetry, where as it would allow none rhyming poetry – what a shame !!
Also, the guy under the Handle Real Thamilan is fake Thamilan. Be aware of him. Only a correct Thamilan could write a proper poetry as it is in our blood.
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE might work within Sri Lanka, it will not work so well out of Sri Lanka, where those adjudicating these claims and counter claims are not under Sri Lankan government influence.
Further, government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE suspects at a high rate in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks.
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
In a similar incident in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
Pillai Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
This is not fair to call Tamil refugees as a liars !! 🙁
How about a few facts?
Tamil refugees are not liars – there are many who fled Sri Lanka for the past 30 years for many reason and they are in other parts of the world.
Yes – Some escaped the Sri Lanka Army and Intelligence as they were supporting the Terrorists of LTTE and were under investigation and the others fled because of the atrocities by the LTTE as they opposed the LTTE.
The post here is about the asylum seekers that recently took the MV SUN SEA to Canada. Now they are liars and may I say why ?
1. Most of them left Sri Lanka via the Colombo International Airport to Thailand before they jumped on board the ship – If there was an issue with regard to their personal security, they would not have managed to legally obtained passports or VISA to get to Thailand and legally leave the airport in a plane.
2. Vinod is a Terrorists and the world knows it but they, the asylum seekers deny it.
3. They paid USD 30,000 – 50,000 for the voyage which is again a proven fact and they deny it.
4. They went to Canada to seek better prospects and not asylum which they tell their friends, but not the legislates – meaning they are liars
basically, this is human trafficking and not asylum seeking – the concept as a whole is a lie !!
45,000 "freed" IDPs are now in Prison centers
45,000 Tamils are contining to live in the well guarded prison-centers scattered throughout the country’s north after they were "freed" the IDP camps
The island of Sri Lanka is likened to a tear drop in the Indian Ocean. This is, perhaps, a most apt image given the country’s tumultuous history. In 2009, we all cried and opened our hearts to over 280,000 Tamil civilians that were interned in detention centres run by Sri Lankan security forces. Humanitarian aid was severely restricted and ‘unexplainable disappearances’ were frequent
A journey to the north of the island gave a chilling insight into the issues that thousands of Tamils continue to face. While much of the conflict is over, it is clear that many people have been unable to access their most basic needs. My experience left me questioning whether Tamils are truly safe from harm today.
Annamma, a young Tamil mother of three children. One of her legs had been blown off during the recent war. Her husband was incapacitated due to a bullet lodged in his spine.
Annamma’s family were Tamils that had fled Jaffna in 1995 to rebuild their lives in Vanni, an autonomous Tamil region. Their future now remains in serious jeopardy.
Annamma told me she is “sick of being here”. She is “sick of waiting… all we do is line up and wait… for food, for water, for a shower…”. Thousands of others are in this same situation. There was a depressing sense of hopelessness in this prison centre.
Thiruchelvam Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 5:35 am
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
Proof please – no one know of such incident and FYI, No youth are present in camps now – almost 100% are old people who actually do not have a place to go to and are enjoying the free shelter and food they get from the government. they prefer staying in the camps than go nowhere !
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE …
Who said they are linked to the LTTE ?? They are the people we rescued from the LTTE – the people whom the LTTE were holding hostage during last stages of war as Human sheilds – they are so glad that the LTTE Ape menace is over…
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka
Your following Statement contradicts this previous statement by you… Let me make it bold !!
…..in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
If 76 of those who were sent back to Sri Lanka were screened (obviously as they went as Asylum seekers) and were sent back / released to their houses without any harm done, that it self proves several things…
1. The GOSL treats the Tamils right, they only look for LTTE apes (whom they rehabilitate anyways)
2. Sri Lanka is a safe place for Tamils
3. Any Tamil overseas could return to Sri Lanka without any fear (as proven – most European flights to Sri Lanka now carry a lot of Tamils who return to their houses – These are those who fled the country because they could not take the atrocities of the Apes of LTTE)
4. Any Tamil who got caught to Human Trafficking as in case of Sun Sea, could return without any fear as the GOSL will still welcome them as citizens of the country and let them go to their places of origin again.
Thank you for this post – It basically smashes to the ground the Basic lies your Post LTTE campaigns are based on…
Canada doesn’t have a Tamil “problem,” whatever critics of our refugee system may say about the arrival here of the cargo freighter MV Sun Sea with some 500 asylum-seekers. We processed 34,000 refugee claims last year; these arrivals won’t overtax the system.
It is Sri Lanka that has a problem. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s triumphalist government has failed to make the country’s large Tamil minority feel secure after crushing the Tiger insurgency last year. Until he does, people will continue to flee.
Tamils are fleeing abroad in desperation. So it was a bit much to hear Sri Lankan High Commissioner Chitranganee Wagiswara urging Ottawa to turn away the Sun Sea, with its women and children, to prevent Tigers from regrouping here. If Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority of 17 million were making the minority 4 million Tamils feel less threatened, fewer would be regrouping anywhere.
Rajapaksa once spoke of giving Tamil regions “substantive provincial autonomy” within a unitary state. He talked of creating a kind of senate to enforce minority rights and of recruiting more Tamils to the bureaucracy and military. But the Tamils are still waiting.
It is time up for Sinhala hawks masquerading as 'high commissioners' and 'consular’s' representing the barbaric Mahinda gang, to basically "adhere to the good rules and law of their host country – Canada " rather than trying to teach Sri Lankan style barbarism and 'imaginary terror mongering' to Canadian politicians.
One of my French Canadian colleagues at work told me today about the 'Sun Sea' tamil refugees. “Never should we listen to the heinous advice of Sri Lankan high commissioner to deport the refugees, period. Instead, they should be given due process".
That is the difference between a freedom ensuring country like Canada – and the racist clans that rule a Banana republic called Sri Lanka.
It is also common knowledge now that a good number of designated and future ambassadors from Sri Lanka to other countries are some type of criminals. Bandula Jayasekara, a stooge of Mahinda and served as Toronto Consular representing Sri Lankan government during the height of the war last year, has been called back to Sri Lanka from his UN job due to strong allegations of having inappropriate behavior/harassment with women.
One should also investigate and find out if there are sinister chapters behind a 'self-proclaimed' terrorism expert called Rohan Gunaratne. Tamil organizations should explore all the legal avenues to find the chinks in the armour of these bogus individuals and harass them through legal court work to chase them back to their 'LALA land' called Sri Lanka.
Because the truth is simple. Only a sadistic criminal mind can paint the refugees as 'terrorists'.
Am I blocked ??
Most of the building materials which were given by India to Tamil IDPs were stolen by the Sri Lanka Army.
Up to 90 % India donated goods IDP are stolen and sold off for profit .
So after 17 months of the broken promises, the result is the IDP families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly
Keep dignity of Tamil refugees in mind during immigration debate – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, Vancouver
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller
The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship.
Some of the reaction has focused on the desperate individuals who have arrived on our shores, smuggled here to flee persecution in their homeland. There has been outcry, much of it hostile, about queue jumping, abuse of the system, and the need to keep Canada from being overrun with would-be refugees.
It is critical at this time to keep in mind the fundamental dignity of each human person, particularly these new arrivals. In his own life and ministry, Jesus identified himself with refugees and other marginalized groups: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).
Catholic Social Teaching is uncompromising on the rights of refugees, and these men, women and children must not become scapegoats in otherwise relevant debates over immigration policy, enforcement and reform.
While it is incumbent on responsible governments to establish the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to potential security risks, the Catholic Church maintains that people who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policies or natural disasters, as well as “internally displaced persons,” must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection.
Canada has a well founded reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees, and a long history of welcoming those seeking a haven from injustice.
It has been well documented in recent years that one of the global consequences of overly restrictive immigration and refugee policies by industrialized countries has been an increase in human trafficking, particularly of women and children.
The United Nations has called people-smuggling the fastest-growing form of transnational organized crime.
Pope John Paul II warned against the tendency of affluent countries to “tighten their borders under pressure from a public opinion disturbed by the inconveniences that accompany the phenomena of immigration. Society finds itself having to deal with the ‘clandestine’ men and women in illegal situations, without any rights in a country that refuses to welcome them, victims of organized crime or of unscrupulous entrepreneurs.” (Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, n 4.)
While the state must ensure immigration policy is subject to the requirements of the common good, such control must not inspired by selfish attitudes or “restrictive policies.”
It is only just that as we discuss federal immigration policy, we keep in the forefront the men, women and children currently in detention – all of whom have risked their lives to escape persecution back home.
Before coming to Vancouver, Archbishop Miller served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the spiritual welfare of those who no longer are or who never have been members of a parish.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/keep_dignity_of_tamil_refugees.html#more
Sorry A. Savage – had a reply to you, but I am blocked and cannot post it right now – let me find a way !
The Sri Lankan government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE cadre at a high rate in the welfare centres in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks. Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/factors-t…
Dear A. Savage
Please follow the link and you shall see my reply !!
http://windsthatchanged.blogspot.com/
Jim,
I'm surprised you omitted this vital part of the UN's John Holmes's statement about SL.
"He also noted that the worst that was expected following the war did not take place and most of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) have gone home so on a whole the UN managed to get “more right than wrong” done through its humanitarian work in Sri Lanka."
You and AI were at the forefront of groups predicting 'Monsoon Genocide', 'Indefinite Detention'/ etc, none of which happened.
It's not too late to say 'sorry'. But I know that AI have an institutional aversion to apologising, whilst expecting everyone else to do so.
a.savage
August 26th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Your touching verses warmed my heart !!
I’m grateful for your kind reply .
Please be careful of the
Fake Thamilian
Thamilan
August 27th, 2010 at 2:10 am
And I think he is blocked by AI due to annoying obscenities , harassment of the AI members and outright fabrications 🙁
Justice Buried Forever In Sri Lanka http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=5&i…
There was never a time when the legitimacy of Sinhala domination would be acceptable to the island’s Tamils. Indeed, as scholarship of Sri Lanka has rigorously laid out, it is the Sinhala state’s manifestly chauvinistic violent efforts – in which international actors, including Western states have been implicated, if not complicit – to institutionalise a racial hierarchy that have led to the compaction of the Eelam Tamil identity. At what point – if ever – did it becoming concerning to international actors that the state military was mono-ethnic? As one American military historian has noted, the policy of an all-Sinhala army has been in place since 1962. At the same time it is worth noting how Britain and other Western states have been involved in ‘Security-Sector-Reform’ and military training for at least two decades.
now some countries playing on Tamils blood with singhalla.
The upsurge of Sinhalese chauvinism flows from the fact that the Sri Lankan military accomplished a task whose pursuit forced the mightier Indian army to make an ignominious exit 19 years ago. Consequently, Colombo is going to be even less inclined than before to listen to New Delhi. Indeed, the manner in which Colombo played the China and Pakistan cards in recent years to outsmart India is likely to remain an enduring feature of Sri Lankan diplomacy, making Sri Lanka a potential springboard for anti-India maneuvers.
Rajapaksa drunk with triumphalism, to colonize Tamil homeland http://genocidesrilanka.blogspot.com/2009/10/raja…
Rip Van Winkle Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 5:39 am
You are acting like an 2 years old !!
You are calling 490 refugees –liars and the proof was ???
Do you have an access to the 490 refugees to verify all vile twaddle you wrote or any other irrefutable proof , you can provide to us here???
How sad …..you stoop to a such low level !!
I just hope his poetry is better than his knowledge of Sri lankan history.
I am amused that even some of the Sinhala on the forum find him quite insufferable, in addition to being an absolute charlatan.
He is annoying me with his nonsense which is aimed at promoting a his hidden racist agenda under the guise of fair reporting … 🙂
The Sri Lankan government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE cadre at a high rate in the welfare centres in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks. Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/factors-t…
The Sri Lankan government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE cadre at a high rate in the welfare centres in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks. Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/factors-t…
Weilkada Prison Massacre
On the 25th of July 1983, prison riots broke out and thirty-seven Tamil prisoners who were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act were murdered by the inmates. Within a few days, the second riot erupted and further 15 prisoners were killed. Following the riots Selvarajah Yogachandran, (Kuttimuni ) Thangathurai, and Jegan lost their lives.
Fr. Philip Anton Sinnarasa of St. John’s, Church Delft was arrested under the PTA and kept under detention at the Welikada Prison. He was one of the very few survivors of the 1983 Welikada prison massacre. He had published his experience in a web page – Remembering silenced voices Black July 83.
I remember that on the first day, the 25th, we were brought outside of our cell and we could see that the whole sky was in smoke. There were big riots taking place outside. We also heard that there was a lot of burning and killing going on.
That evening, we a heard a lot of screaming and crying. We quickly found out that there was an attack on the political prisoners in the Chapel section. All the Singhalese criminals were let out. They took whatever they could, and they were killing the Tamil prisoners. 35 people were massacred on this day.
…..Eventually the army came in and fired tear gas. It was a closed building, so we were also affected, but they were able to chase the criminals outside. The soldiers came in with guns to see whether we too had done anything. We were asked to kneel down. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We thought that they were going to just finish us off! Luckily, a high-ranking officer came and he ordered us all to leave
Tamil had an even ghastlier experience to relate:
‘That morning, we were having a meeting in the office when we heard the sounds of mob fury.
We went out onto the balcony and what we witnessed was systematic looting and arson by a merciless mob.
The leader had a voters’ list with him to identify Tamil houses.
They would mark a Tamil house, forcibly enter, smash the furniture and window panes, drag the inmates out and kill them.
Another passing mob would stop cars, extort petrol and set fire to what was left of the houses.
I rushed home and told my parents we must leave.
Hardly had I said that when we heard the next house being ransacked.
We grabbed our passports and a change of clothes and rushed out.
It was like being born again when we got out of Sri Lanka.’
Justice Buried Forever In Sri Lanka http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=5&i…
There was never a time when the legitimacy of Sinhala domination would be acceptable to the island’s Tamils. Indeed, as scholarship of Sri Lanka has rigorously laid out, it is the Sinhala state’s manifestly chauvinistic violent efforts – in which international actors, including Western states have been implicated, if not complicit – to institutionalise a racial hierarchy that have led to the compaction of the Eelam Tamil identity. At what point – if ever – did it becoming concerning to international actors that the state military was mono-ethnic? As one American military historian has noted, the policy of an all-Sinhala army has been in place since 1962. At the same time it is worth noting how Britain and other Western states have been involved in ‘Security-Sector-Reform’ and military training for at least two decades.
now some countries playing on Tamils blood with singhalla.
Justice Buried Forever In Sri Lanka http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=5&i…
There was never a time when the legitimacy of Sinhala domination would be acceptable to the island’s Tamils. Indeed, as scholarship of Sri Lanka has rigorously laid out, it is the Sinhala state’s manifestly chauvinistic violent efforts – in which international actors, including Western states have been implicated, if not complicit – to institutionalise a racial hierarchy that have led to the compaction of the Eelam Tamil identity. At what point – if ever – did it becoming concerning to international actors that the state military was mono-ethnic? As one American military historian has noted, the policy of an all-Sinhala army has been in place since 1962. At the same time it is worth noting how Britain and other Western states have been involved in ‘Security-Sector-Reform’ and military training for at least two decades.
now some countries playing on Tamils blood with singhalla.
The Black July 1983 created a collective trauma for Tamils and it affected the country’s political, economical, social and moral structures.
The racial violence of the 83 tarnished the image of Sri Lanka changing the course of the nation’s history.
The Black July 1983 taught many bitter lessons to the Sri Lankans.
The darkest day- longest night
It was indeed a dark day
When the cities covered with smoke and blood
Frightened people hiding under
When the wolves looking for fresh blood
It was a time of madness
When mob rules came in to action
When a time like this
One could see both light and the dark
When good people hiding their neighbors from the wolves
The bad people brought wolves to their neighborhood
The darkest day longest night
One could see the savage part of human nature
It was a time of belligerence
The time of emptiness
EDE – August 26th, 2010 at 5:43 pm said:
“Sri Lankans, whether living in Colombo or Killinochi are no longer at the mercy of deliberate suicide bombers or being caught in shelling or cross-fires”
Yes my friend, as GLP said the other day:
Many people in public life in Sri Lanka did suffer very grave injuries, and some lost their lives, as a result of the violence that was perpetrated in our country. In fact, at that time typically, if a family had to travel using public transport, it would be very unusual for husband and wife to travel together by bus or by train. The mother would go by bus and the father would go by train because they wanted to make certain that, if one of them was killed, at least there would be one parent living to look after the child.
I say this to indicate to you what the mindset of the public was at that time. When the husband went to work in the morning or the child went to school, there was no assurance that they would come home unharmed or indeed alive, in the evening. There was so much uncertainty.
The upsurge of Sinhalese chauvinism flows from the fact that the Sri Lankan military accomplished a task whose pursuit forced the mightier Indian army to make an ignominious exit 19 years ago. Consequently, Colombo is going to be even less inclined than before to listen to New Delhi. Indeed, the manner in which Colombo played the China and Pakistan cards in recent years to outsmart India is likely to remain an enduring feature of Sri Lankan diplomacy, making Sri Lanka a potential springboard for anti-India maneuvers.
Rajapaksa drunk with triumphalism, to colonize Tamil homeland http://genocidesrilanka.blogspot.com/2009/10/raja…
The upsurge of Sinhalese chauvinism flows from the fact that the Sri Lankan military accomplished a task whose pursuit forced the mightier Indian army to make an ignominious exit 19 years ago. Consequently, Colombo is going to be even less inclined than before to listen to New Delhi. Indeed, the manner in which Colombo played the China and Pakistan cards in recent years to outsmart India is likely to remain an enduring feature of Sri Lankan diplomacy, making Sri Lanka a potential springboard for anti-India maneuvers.
Rajapaksa drunk with triumphalism, to colonize Tamil homeland http://genocidesrilanka.blogspot.com/2009/10/raja…
In the late 40s and the early 50s Ceylon had the highest per capita income in South Asia. We were ahead of Malaya, ahead of Thailand, ahead of Korea and we were just a few dollars behind Japan.
What held us back thereafter was one problem, and that was the problem of terrorism. As a Minister who has been involved in Government since 1994 – that is a long time; 16 years – I am personally aware that, whatever we tried to do during that period, however hard we tried, however pragmatic our policies were, there was a point beyond which we could not succeed, with regard to investment, with regard to trade or tourism because of the violence in the country.
The difference now is that this constraint has been consigned to the past, our country has been able to eradicate terrorism. It might seem to you, and indeed it is, a singular achievement. It is, therefore, worth pausing to reflect for a moment on how this became possible, because the gloomy prophesy that we heard all too often from the international community, was that it was simply not possible to prevail against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the field of battle.
Sri Lanka’s experience and its lessons for the world
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=5208
I am not blocked A. Savage. I just realized that AI is not allowing a bit of rhyming poetry, where as it would allow none rhyming poetry – what a shame !!
Also, the guy under the Handle Real Thamilan is fake Thamilan. Be aware of him. Only a correct Thamilan could write a proper poetry as it is in our blood.
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE might work within Sri Lanka, it will not work so well out of Sri Lanka, where those adjudicating these claims and counter claims are not under Sri Lankan government influence.
Further, government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE suspects at a high rate in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks.
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
In a similar incident in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
Pillai Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
This is not fair to call Tamil refugees as a liars !! 🙁
How about a few facts?
Tamil refugees are not liars – there are many who fled Sri Lanka for the past 30 years for many reason and they are in other parts of the world.
Yes – Some escaped the Sri Lanka Army and Intelligence as they were supporting the Terrorists of LTTE and were under investigation and the others fled because of the atrocities by the LTTE as they opposed the LTTE.
The post here is about the asylum seekers that recently took the MV SUN SEA to Canada. Now they are liars and may I say why ?
1. Most of them left Sri Lanka via the Colombo International Airport to Thailand before they jumped on board the ship – If there was an issue with regard to their personal security, they would not have managed to legally obtained passports or VISA to get to Thailand and legally leave the airport in a plane.
2. Vinod is a Terrorists and the world knows it but they, the asylum seekers deny it.
3. They paid USD 30,000 – 50,000 for the voyage which is again a proven fact and they deny it.
4. They went to Canada to seek better prospects and not asylum which they tell their friends, but not the legislates – meaning they are liars
basically, this is human trafficking and not asylum seeking – the concept as a whole is a lie !!
45,000 “freed” IDPs are now in Prison centers
45,000 Tamils are contining to live in the well guarded prison-centers scattered throughout the country’s north after they were “freed” the IDP camps
The island of Sri Lanka is likened to a tear drop in the Indian Ocean. This is, perhaps, a most apt image given the country’s tumultuous history. In 2009, we all cried and opened our hearts to over 280,000 Tamil civilians that were interned in detention centres run by Sri Lankan security forces. Humanitarian aid was severely restricted and ‘unexplainable disappearances’ were frequent
A journey to the north of the island gave a chilling insight into the issues that thousands of Tamils continue to face. While much of the conflict is over, it is clear that many people have been unable to access their most basic needs. My experience left me questioning whether Tamils are truly safe from harm today.
Annamma, a young Tamil mother of three children. One of her legs had been blown off during the recent war. Her husband was incapacitated due to a bullet lodged in his spine.
Annamma’s family were Tamils that had fled Jaffna in 1995 to rebuild their lives in Vanni, an autonomous Tamil region. Their future now remains in serious jeopardy.
Annamma told me she is “sick of being here”. She is “sick of waiting… all we do is line up and wait… for food, for water, for a shower…”. Thousands of others are in this same situation. There was a depressing sense of hopelessness in this prison centre.
Lawyer blasts government handling of Tamil migrants http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100827/migrant…
"I thought we might have some enlightenment as to what the (public safety) minister might be doing … with respect to verifying their identities."
He said many of the migrants brought identification cards issued by the Sri Lankan government that are outfitted with security features.
Canada is made up of refugees and Immigrants. Then why the current boatload of refugees is different? http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=563&…
The news was not that fresh when the boatload of almost 500 Tamil refugees touched the shores of British Columbia in the month of August. For almost a month various security agencies of the Government spread the suspected ship’s movement through various segments in the media. Obviously with its 7th fleet firmly stationed in the Asia/Pacific and its strong Naval base in Hawaii monitoring everything that is moving between Asia and the Americas, United States has every information available on the path of the ship, well ahead of time.
The international community knows the extent of suffering and hopelessness that has become the life for Tamils in Sri Lanka, after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The complete disregard for international norms in flagrantly violating the fundamental Human Rights has become thorny to foreign policy analysts worldwide.
The so called ‘Sri Lankan’ model of executing surrendered Tamil fighters, bombing clearly marked hospitals, schools and churches, carpet and cluster bombing over the densely congregated civil population, not allowing the International Red Cross to remove or treat the wounded, prevent the UN to supply water, medicines and food to the starving and wounded – all this have attributed to the International community to see the possibility of getting some redress through UN, by setting up the special committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s alleged ‘crimes against humanity’.
The continuing imprisonment of thousands of civilian population, including women and children for the last one year, in the pretext of inquiry has wide spread consequences, especially on the allegations of disappearances and sexual assaults while in custody.
Resettled families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
Rains have been pouring down in Vanni for the last four days with the break of North East Monsoon in Sri Lanka and the resettled families sheltered under makeshift huts without proper roofing are left without any assistance to face the onslaught of the monsoon that will last until the end of December, Non-government Organization (NGO) representatives who visited Vanni said. Promises of constructing houses for the resettled families in Vanni by the Indian government and World Bank are yet to be fulfilled.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly, the NGO representatives warned.
They added that Sri Lanka government has permitted only a few NGOs to work in Vanni and that arrangements have not been made for them to independently distribute relief measures to the suffering families. Their services are either obstructed or controlled by Sri Lanka government, they said.
Tamils being met with racism http://www.langleyadvance.com/news/Tamils+being+w…
The level of racism in the debate over the Tamils is hard to measure. It's veiled behind rhetoric about refugees "jumping the queue" and talk about them becoming freeloaders on Canada's welfare system.
Thiruchelvam Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 5:35 am
1,500+ Tamil youths arrested from IDP camps last week
Proof please – no one know of such incident and FYI, No youth are present in camps now – almost 100% are old people who actually do not have a place to go to and are enjoying the free shelter and food they get from the government. they prefer staying in the camps than go nowhere !
While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE …
Who said they are linked to the LTTE ?? They are the people we rescued from the LTTE – the people whom the LTTE were holding hostage during last stages of war as Human sheilds – they are so glad that the LTTE Ape menace is over…
Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka
Your following Statement contradicts this previous statement by you… Let me make it bold !!
…..in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.
If 76 of those who were sent back to Sri Lanka were screened (obviously as they went as Asylum seekers) and were sent back / released to their houses without any harm done, that it self proves several things…
1. The GOSL treats the Tamils right, they only look for LTTE apes (whom they rehabilitate anyways)
2. Sri Lanka is a safe place for Tamils
3. Any Tamil overseas could return to Sri Lanka without any fear (as proven – most European flights to Sri Lanka now carry a lot of Tamils who return to their houses – These are those who fled the country because they could not take the atrocities of the Apes of LTTE)
4. Any Tamil who got caught to Human Trafficking as in case of Sun Sea, could return without any fear as the GOSL will still welcome them as citizens of the country and let them go to their places of origin again.
Thank you for this post – It basically smashes to the ground the Basic lies your Post LTTE campaigns are based on…
Canada doesn’t have a Tamil “problem,” whatever critics of our refugee system may say about the arrival here of the cargo freighter MV Sun Sea with some 500 asylum-seekers. We processed 34,000 refugee claims last year; these arrivals won’t overtax the system.
It is Sri Lanka that has a problem. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s triumphalist government has failed to make the country’s large Tamil minority feel secure after crushing the Tiger insurgency last year. Until he does, people will continue to flee.
Tamils are fleeing abroad in desperation. So it was a bit much to hear Sri Lankan High Commissioner Chitranganee Wagiswara urging Ottawa to turn away the Sun Sea, with its women and children, to prevent Tigers from regrouping here. If Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority of 17 million were making the minority 4 million Tamils feel less threatened, fewer would be regrouping anywhere.
Rajapaksa once spoke of giving Tamil regions “substantive provincial autonomy” within a unitary state. He talked of creating a kind of senate to enforce minority rights and of recruiting more Tamils to the bureaucracy and military. But the Tamils are still waiting.
It is time up for Sinhala hawks masquerading as ‘high commissioners’ and ‘consular’s’ representing the barbaric Mahinda gang, to basically “adhere to the good rules and law of their host country – Canada ” rather than trying to teach Sri Lankan style barbarism and ‘imaginary terror mongering’ to Canadian politicians.
One of my French Canadian colleagues at work told me today about the ‘Sun Sea’ tamil refugees. “Never should we listen to the heinous advice of Sri Lankan high commissioner to deport the refugees, period. Instead, they should be given due process”.
That is the difference between a freedom ensuring country like Canada – and the racist clans that rule a Banana republic called Sri Lanka.
It is also common knowledge now that a good number of designated and future ambassadors from Sri Lanka to other countries are some type of criminals. Bandula Jayasekara, a stooge of Mahinda and served as Toronto Consular representing Sri Lankan government during the height of the war last year, has been called back to Sri Lanka from his UN job due to strong allegations of having inappropriate behavior/harassment with women.
One should also investigate and find out if there are sinister chapters behind a ‘self-proclaimed’ terrorism expert called Rohan Gunaratne. Tamil organizations should explore all the legal avenues to find the chinks in the armour of these bogus individuals and harass them through legal court work to chase them back to their ‘LALA land’ called Sri Lanka.
Because the truth is simple. Only a sadistic criminal mind can paint the refugees as ‘terrorists’.
Lawyer blasts government handling of Tamil migrants http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100827/migrant…
"I thought we might have some enlightenment as to what the (public safety) minister might be doing … with respect to verifying their identities."
He said many of the migrants brought identification cards issued by the Sri Lankan government that are outfitted with security features.
Lawyer blasts government handling of Tamil migrants http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100827/migrant…
"I thought we might have some enlightenment as to what the (public safety) minister might be doing … with respect to verifying their identities."
He said many of the migrants brought identification cards issued by the Sri Lankan government that are outfitted with security features.
Canada is made up of refugees and Immigrants. Then why the current boatload of refugees is different? http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=563&…
The news was not that fresh when the boatload of almost 500 Tamil refugees touched the shores of British Columbia in the month of August. For almost a month various security agencies of the Government spread the suspected ship’s movement through various segments in the media. Obviously with its 7th fleet firmly stationed in the Asia/Pacific and its strong Naval base in Hawaii monitoring everything that is moving between Asia and the Americas, United States has every information available on the path of the ship, well ahead of time.
The international community knows the extent of suffering and hopelessness that has become the life for Tamils in Sri Lanka, after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The complete disregard for international norms in flagrantly violating the fundamental Human Rights has become thorny to foreign policy analysts worldwide.
The so called ‘Sri Lankan’ model of executing surrendered Tamil fighters, bombing clearly marked hospitals, schools and churches, carpet and cluster bombing over the densely congregated civil population, not allowing the International Red Cross to remove or treat the wounded, prevent the UN to supply water, medicines and food to the starving and wounded – all this have attributed to the International community to see the possibility of getting some redress through UN, by setting up the special committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s alleged ‘crimes against humanity’.
The continuing imprisonment of thousands of civilian population, including women and children for the last one year, in the pretext of inquiry has wide spread consequences, especially on the allegations of disappearances and sexual assaults while in custody.
Canada is made up of refugees and Immigrants. Then why the current boatload of refugees is different? http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=563&…
The news was not that fresh when the boatload of almost 500 Tamil refugees touched the shores of British Columbia in the month of August. For almost a month various security agencies of the Government spread the suspected ship’s movement through various segments in the media. Obviously with its 7th fleet firmly stationed in the Asia/Pacific and its strong Naval base in Hawaii monitoring everything that is moving between Asia and the Americas, United States has every information available on the path of the ship, well ahead of time.
The international community knows the extent of suffering and hopelessness that has become the life for Tamils in Sri Lanka, after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The complete disregard for international norms in flagrantly violating the fundamental Human Rights has become thorny to foreign policy analysts worldwide.
The so called ‘Sri Lankan’ model of executing surrendered Tamil fighters, bombing clearly marked hospitals, schools and churches, carpet and cluster bombing over the densely congregated civil population, not allowing the International Red Cross to remove or treat the wounded, prevent the UN to supply water, medicines and food to the starving and wounded – all this have attributed to the International community to see the possibility of getting some redress through UN, by setting up the special committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s alleged ‘crimes against humanity’.
The continuing imprisonment of thousands of civilian population, including women and children for the last one year, in the pretext of inquiry has wide spread consequences, especially on the allegations of disappearances and sexual assaults while in custody.
Rip Van Winkle ! Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 6:45 am
We the members of the Tamil Diaspora understand KP's position.
He is a captive and nothing more.
Whether he is kept in an iron cage or a golden cage will matter little.
He will invariably say things and do things, what he is told to do.
Resettled families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
Rains have been pouring down in Vanni for the last four days with the break of North East Monsoon in Sri Lanka and the resettled families sheltered under makeshift huts without proper roofing are left without any assistance to face the onslaught of the monsoon that will last until the end of December, Non-government Organization (NGO) representatives who visited Vanni said. Promises of constructing houses for the resettled families in Vanni by the Indian government and World Bank are yet to be fulfilled.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly, the NGO representatives warned.
They added that Sri Lanka government has permitted only a few NGOs to work in Vanni and that arrangements have not been made for them to independently distribute relief measures to the suffering families. Their services are either obstructed or controlled by Sri Lanka government, they said.
Tamils being met with racism http://www.langleyadvance.com/news/Tamils+being+w…
The level of racism in the debate over the Tamils is hard to measure. It's veiled behind rhetoric about refugees "jumping the queue" and talk about them becoming freeloaders on Canada's welfare system.
Resettled families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&art…
Rains have been pouring down in Vanni for the last four days with the break of North East Monsoon in Sri Lanka and the resettled families sheltered under makeshift huts without proper roofing are left without any assistance to face the onslaught of the monsoon that will last until the end of December, Non-government Organization (NGO) representatives who visited Vanni said. Promises of constructing houses for the resettled families in Vanni by the Indian government and World Bank are yet to be fulfilled.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly, the NGO representatives warned.
They added that Sri Lanka government has permitted only a few NGOs to work in Vanni and that arrangements have not been made for them to independently distribute relief measures to the suffering families. Their services are either obstructed or controlled by Sri Lanka government, they said.
Tamils being met with racism http://www.langleyadvance.com/news/Tamils+being+w…
The level of racism in the debate over the Tamils is hard to measure. It's veiled behind rhetoric about refugees "jumping the queue" and talk about them becoming freeloaders on Canada's welfare system.
Jim,
I’m surprised you omitted this vital part of the UN’s John Holmes’s statement about SL.
“He also noted that the worst that was expected following the war did not take place and most of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) have gone home so on a whole the UN managed to get “more right than wrong” done through its humanitarian work in Sri Lanka.”
You and AI were at the forefront of groups predicting ‘Monsoon Genocide’, ‘Indefinite Detention’/ etc, none of which happened.
It’s not too late to say ‘sorry’. But I know that AI have an institutional aversion to apologising, whilst expecting everyone else to do so.
Rip Van Winkle Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 5:39 am
You are acting like an 2 years old !!
You are calling 490 refugees –liars and the proof was ???
Do you have an access to the 490 refugees to verify all vile twaddle you wrote or any other irrefutable proof , you can provide to us here???
How sad …..you stoop to a such low level !!
The Sri Lankan government spokespersons have said that they were arresting LTTE cadre at a high rate in the welfare centres in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1,500 in recent weeks. Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/factors-that-spoil-sri-lankas-image.html
Weilkada Prison Massacre
On the 25th of July 1983, prison riots broke out and thirty-seven Tamil prisoners who were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act were murdered by the inmates. Within a few days, the second riot erupted and further 15 prisoners were killed. Following the riots Selvarajah Yogachandran, (Kuttimuni ) Thangathurai, and Jegan lost their lives.
Fr. Philip Anton Sinnarasa of St. John’s, Church Delft was arrested under the PTA and kept under detention at the Welikada Prison. He was one of the very few survivors of the 1983 Welikada prison massacre. He had published his experience in a web page – Remembering silenced voices Black July 83.
I remember that on the first day, the 25th, we were brought outside of our cell and we could see that the whole sky was in smoke. There were big riots taking place outside. We also heard that there was a lot of burning and killing going on.
That evening, we a heard a lot of screaming and crying. We quickly found out that there was an attack on the political prisoners in the Chapel section. All the Singhalese criminals were let out. They took whatever they could, and they were killing the Tamil prisoners. 35 people were massacred on this day.
…..Eventually the army came in and fired tear gas. It was a closed building, so we were also affected, but they were able to chase the criminals outside. The soldiers came in with guns to see whether we too had done anything. We were asked to kneel down. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We thought that they were going to just finish us off! Luckily, a high-ranking officer came and he ordered us all to leave
Tamil had an even ghastlier experience to relate:
‘That morning, we were having a meeting in the office when we heard the sounds of mob fury.
We went out onto the balcony and what we witnessed was systematic looting and arson by a merciless mob.
The leader had a voters’ list with him to identify Tamil houses.
They would mark a Tamil house, forcibly enter, smash the furniture and window panes, drag the inmates out and kill them.
Another passing mob would stop cars, extort petrol and set fire to what was left of the houses.
I rushed home and told my parents we must leave.
Hardly had I said that when we heard the next house being ransacked.
We grabbed our passports and a change of clothes and rushed out.
It was like being born again when we got out of Sri Lanka.’
Justice Buried Forever In Sri Lanka
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=5&id=5856
There was never a time when the legitimacy of Sinhala domination would be acceptable to the island’s Tamils. Indeed, as scholarship of Sri Lanka has rigorously laid out, it is the Sinhala state’s manifestly chauvinistic violent efforts – in which international actors, including Western states have been implicated, if not complicit – to institutionalise a racial hierarchy that have led to the compaction of the Eelam Tamil identity. At what point – if ever – did it becoming concerning to international actors that the state military was mono-ethnic? As one American military historian has noted, the policy of an all-Sinhala army has been in place since 1962. At the same time it is worth noting how Britain and other Western states have been involved in ‘Security-Sector-Reform’ and military training for at least two decades.
now some countries playing on Tamils blood with singhalla.
The Black July 1983 created a collective trauma for Tamils and it affected the country’s political, economical, social and moral structures.
The racial violence of the 83 tarnished the image of Sri Lanka changing the course of the nation’s history.
The Black July 1983 taught many bitter lessons to the Sri Lankans.
The darkest day- longest night
It was indeed a dark day
When the cities covered with smoke and blood
Frightened people hiding under
When the wolves looking for fresh blood
It was a time of madness
When mob rules came in to action
When a time like this
One could see both light and the dark
When good people hiding their neighbors from the wolves
The bad people brought wolves to their neighborhood
The darkest day longest night
One could see the savage part of human nature
It was a time of belligerence
The time of emptiness
The upsurge of Sinhalese chauvinism flows from the fact that the Sri Lankan military accomplished a task whose pursuit forced the mightier Indian army to make an ignominious exit 19 years ago. Consequently, Colombo is going to be even less inclined than before to listen to New Delhi. Indeed, the manner in which Colombo played the China and Pakistan cards in recent years to outsmart India is likely to remain an enduring feature of Sri Lankan diplomacy, making Sri Lanka a potential springboard for anti-India maneuvers.
Rajapaksa drunk with triumphalism, to colonize Tamil homeland
http://genocidesrilanka.blogspot.com/2009/10/rajapaksa-drunk-with-triumphalism-to.html
Gunalan Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
We the members of the Tamil Diaspora understand KP’s position. He is a captive and nothing more. Whether he is kept in an iron cage or a golden cage will matter little. He will invariably say things and do things, what he is told to do.
U are basically calling one of your comrades a spineless chicken to turn when he is asked to ?? A true comrade will never change unless he see's the light….
Don't judge him by your standards !!
Lawyer blasts government handling of Tamil migrants
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100827/migrant-boat-lawyer-100827/
“I thought we might have some enlightenment as to what the (public safety) minister might be doing … with respect to verifying their identities.”
He said many of the migrants brought identification cards issued by the Sri Lankan government that are outfitted with security features.
Canada is made up of refugees and Immigrants. Then why the current boatload of refugees is different?
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=563&id=5946
The news was not that fresh when the boatload of almost 500 Tamil refugees touched the shores of British Columbia in the month of August. For almost a month various security agencies of the Government spread the suspected ship’s movement through various segments in the media. Obviously with its 7th fleet firmly stationed in the Asia/Pacific and its strong Naval base in Hawaii monitoring everything that is moving between Asia and the Americas, United States has every information available on the path of the ship, well ahead of time.
The international community knows the extent of suffering and hopelessness that has become the life for Tamils in Sri Lanka, after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The complete disregard for international norms in flagrantly violating the fundamental Human Rights has become thorny to foreign policy analysts worldwide.
The so called ‘Sri Lankan’ model of executing surrendered Tamil fighters, bombing clearly marked hospitals, schools and churches, carpet and cluster bombing over the densely congregated civil population, not allowing the International Red Cross to remove or treat the wounded, prevent the UN to supply water, medicines and food to the starving and wounded – all this have attributed to the International community to see the possibility of getting some redress through UN, by setting up the special committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s alleged ‘crimes against humanity’.
The continuing imprisonment of thousands of civilian population, including women and children for the last one year, in the pretext of inquiry has wide spread consequences, especially on the allegations of disappearances and sexual assaults while in custody.
Rip Van Winkle ! Says:
August 26th, 2010 at 6:45 am
We the members of the Tamil Diaspora understand KP’s position.
He is a captive and nothing more.
Whether he is kept in an iron cage or a golden cage will matter little.
He will invariably say things and do things, what he is told to do.
Resettled families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=32487
Rains have been pouring down in Vanni for the last four days with the break of North East Monsoon in Sri Lanka and the resettled families sheltered under makeshift huts without proper roofing are left without any assistance to face the onslaught of the monsoon that will last until the end of December, Non-government Organization (NGO) representatives who visited Vanni said. Promises of constructing houses for the resettled families in Vanni by the Indian government and World Bank are yet to be fulfilled.
The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.
Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.
The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.
Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly, the NGO representatives warned.
They added that Sri Lanka government has permitted only a few NGOs to work in Vanni and that arrangements have not been made for them to independently distribute relief measures to the suffering families. Their services are either obstructed or controlled by Sri Lanka government, they said.
Tamils being met with racism
http://www.langleyadvance.com/news/Tamils+being+with+racism/3450081/story.html
The level of racism in the debate over the Tamils is hard to measure. It’s veiled behind rhetoric about refugees “jumping the queue” and talk about them becoming freeloaders on Canada’s welfare system.
Gunalan Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
We the members of the Tamil Diaspora understand KP’s position. He is a captive and nothing more. Whether he is kept in an iron cage or a golden cage will matter little. He will invariably say things and do things, what he is told to do.
U are basically calling one of your comrades a spineless chicken to turn when he is asked to ?? A true comrade will never change unless he see’s the light….
Don’t judge him by your standards !!
This is high time for the world to open the eyes.All Tamils in Lanka should be given asylum all over the world. There is no future for Tamils in Lanka under the racist Sinhala goevernments -all Singhala politicians are racists basically.It is more than a year after the war and killings of 40,000 Tamils, but still there is no political settlement for Tamils.
The UN peace keeping force should be sent to Lanka.
Pillai Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 8:27 am
You are calling 490 refugees –liars and the proof was ???
Obviously not all 490, some are innocent by standers victims of Human Trafficking… but indeed they are all caught in the same racket and they will also have to lie… In that sense, yes all 490 will be liars… The reasons, I explained in the very same post you have quoted – that is your proof – To re-cap the most important – Most of them left Sri Lanka to Thailand "Legally" to get in to the Ship which took off from there – Refugees or asylum seekers can't leave Sri Lanka Legally
Do you have an access to the 490 refugees to verify all vile twaddle you wrote or any other irrefutable proof , you can provide to us here???
May I ask whether you have any access to them for you to claim that they did not leave from Thailand or etc ??? I quote evidential facts ! People have seen them leave Thailand and people have seen where they stayed, what they did and how they planned. Navy's across the Pacific has given evidence – What proof do you have ??
Also, Is not Vinod a LTTE member ??
Gunalan Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Machan, I am still waiting for you to ask me 2 questions and reply to my 2 questions to the post about killing of Lakshman Kadiragamar !!
How sad …..you stoop to a such low level !!
This is high time for the world to open the eyes.All Tamils in Lanka should be given asylum all over the world. There is no future for Tamils in Lanka under the racist Sinhala goevernments -all Singhala politicians are racists basically.It is more than a year after the war and killings of 40,000 Tamils, but still there is no political settlement for Tamils.
The UN peace keeping force should be sent to Lanka.
Pillai Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 8:27 am
You are calling 490 refugees –liars and the proof was ???
Obviously not all 490, some are innocent by standers victims of Human Trafficking… but indeed they are all caught in the same racket and they will also have to lie… In that sense, yes all 490 will be liars… The reasons, I explained in the very same post you have quoted – that is your proof – To re-cap the most important – Most of them left Sri Lanka to Thailand “Legally” to get in to the Ship which took off from there – Refugees or asylum seekers can’t leave Sri Lanka Legally
Do you have an access to the 490 refugees to verify all vile twaddle you wrote or any other irrefutable proof , you can provide to us here???
May I ask whether you have any access to them for you to claim that they did not leave from Thailand or etc ??? I quote evidential facts ! People have seen them leave Thailand and people have seen where they stayed, what they did and how they planned. Navy’s across the Pacific has given evidence – What proof do you have ??
Also, Is not Vinod a LTTE member ??
Gunalan Says:
August 27th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Machan, I am still waiting for you to ask me 2 questions and reply to my 2 questions to the post about killing of Lakshman Kadiragamar !!
How sad …..you stoop to a such low level !!
The identity-less’ boat people’ are also back in news, ever since the Thai cargo ship, MV Sun Sea landed at the Canadian coast of British Columbia last week, with 495 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers.
I haven’t seen any of these ‘boat people’ myself, but security experts, who are yet to visit the detention centres in Canada, have wasted no opportunity in declaring the Tamil ‘boat people’ as LTTE terrorists and potential threats to the ‘host countries’.
The ‘boatophobes’ appear particularly concerned about the security of the host country, Canada, in this case and have accused the Canadian authorities of being slipshod on terrorism laws and granting asylum to terrorists and of endangering people’s lives.
The ‘boatophobes’ aka xenophobes from Canada would still have some legitimate concerns, because it is their country that is ‘under threat’ from foreigners descending on their soil to avail of their hospitality.
Of grave concern is that ‘boatophobic’ experts in South and South East Asia are defining the ‘security’ requirements of the Western nations.
Their arguments are not only patronising and racist but also dehumanise and demonise the Sri Lankan Tamil community, who have more than one reason to escape the brutalities of life in a country that they cannot even call ‘home’.
The question is how do we fix the problem of discontent among Sri Lankans who are Non Budhist . The solution is primarily in the hands of the Sinhalese Budhist monks and Sinhalese Budhists ,who have to realize that Sri Lanka is for all born Sri Lankans – irrespective of any ethnicity and Religon. After hundreds of years of foreign domination this is a difficult pill for the Sinhalese Budhists to swallow.
The first problem is that the Majority Sinhalese Budhists can not see or understand this fact, they are not aware that there attitude that Sri Lanka is primarily for Sinhala Budhists is erroneous. They are totally brain-washed into thinking that every one in Sri Lanka who is not a Sinhala Budhist has to be second class.
Sad to say, even the President , though married to a Christian behaves in this fashion. Visiting a Kovil or Church does not make the President realize the disparity he himself suffers from.
No one dares to tell him this for fear of being abducted in a White van.
There has to be a deffinite change of heart amongst nearly 19 million Sri Lankan Budhists. They never asked themselves why did 99% of the Burghers leave the island? What is wrong with Sri Lanka, that a boat load of 500 Tamils are seeking Refugee status in Canada. Why are other Boat loads of Tamils Seeking refugee status in Newzealand and Australia? It is because they do not feel Sri Lanka can give them a safe home guranteed of human rights.
This task is made near impossible on account of the Voting system in Sri Lanka. The Politicians want to appease the voters -19 million Sinhala Budhists. No Sinhala Budhist at this stage will ever agree to my thoughts above. As a result Sri Lanka is doomed and labelled as a Nazi type of people who do not practice the greatest thoughts and principlas the Buddha thry belive in preached.
Ranil Wickremasinghe did try in a peaceful way to appese the Tamil Terrorists by keeping the Military in a non combatant role , hoping Prabahakaran would come round., but Ranil never put into motion the reconsiliation effort to convince and give the Tamils the feeling that they are one of the most valuable and indispensable ethnic group in Sri Lanka. He did not have the guts to go to the Sinhala Budhists and tell them that they have to change. Neither is the present President doing the same. He will not risk going against or rather try to convince the Majority of Sri Lankan voters – the Sinhala Budhists to change.
The president won a war but appears to have lost the country.
The Majority of Sri Lankans (nearly 18 million are Sinhalese Budhists) , how does one convince a Sihalese Budhist, that, a Tamil , a Christian , a Muslim , a Hindu ,a Burgher, a Malay could be the President of Sri Lanka?
The minorities also have got to work towards reconsiliation with the Majority.They have to focus that dividing the country is not the solution. The minorities have to work as they have been doing but without violence . This is where Prabahakaran went wrong.
The Mahatma brought a revolutionary change to how the world views – human beings, sadly, I feel Prabahakaran would have come close if his effort was non violent. There is no doubt there is disparity towards the Tamils, Burghers ,Muslims and non Sinhalese minorities in Sri Lanka. Prabahakaran sadly missed the peacful protest that could have won him a Nobel prize. He had no compassion for the other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. The protest from the inorities must not look down on the Sinhalese majority but extend a hand in friendship and patriotism toeard ONE SRI LANKA.
I am a Sinhalese but very very grateful to my Tamil, Burgher,Malay and Muslim friends. They are as close to me and valauable to me as my own family.
If one investigates, one will find , that, most of the non Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are the most Patriotic Sri Lankans one will ever find. Every non Sinhalese expatriate thinks of Sri Lanka as his/her motherland, are very proud to be Sri Lanka. They long to be able to do well in Sri Lanka economically. Even thogh they may do well abroad. This has been resounding from almost every Sri Lankan non Sinhalese expatriate abrod.
Those who clamour for a seperate State are misguided and should re-investigate their processes at achieving equallity in the island.
Dear President , you have achived many great things for Sri Lanka no questions asked.
You now have the Power to change the attitude of the Sinhalese Budhists. Get the Sri Lankan Buddhist Monks to turn into action what they preach. Make Sri Lanka change into a compassionate country which treats every human being with respect, and also respect the fact that he /she has the freedom of speech without insulting or slander.
You may yet win back the country you lost, when you won the war in Sri Lanka in June of 2009.
Why all the fuss over an insignificant number of boat people?
In 2009, about 34,000 refugees came to Canada
So 490 refugees is 1.5 % only
The Government of Sri Lanka repeated daily warnings to Canada in April, May, June, July and August that vicious Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Sri Lanka also alerted the Canadian news paper that the boat is full of criminals?
Sri Lanka government propagandists posted zillion posts on the internet under every newspaper article in Canada. Read a few and you know what I mean!
Why does the Sri Lanka Government is fanning the flames of the Xenophobia ?
Why Canadians are so gullible and creating the explosive racial hatred toward the Tamils?
Sri Lanka expertly alienated the one group against another – the divide and rule strategy
And another thing, they don’t want the war crime witnesses reach safety of Canada where no one is afraid to tell the truth .
The identity-less’ boat people’ are also back in news, ever since the Thai cargo ship, MV Sun Sea landed at the Canadian coast of British Columbia last week, with 495 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers.
I haven’t seen any of these ‘boat people’ myself, but security experts, who are yet to visit the detention centres in Canada, have wasted no opportunity in declaring the Tamil ‘boat people’ as LTTE terrorists and potential threats to the ‘host countries’.
The ‘boatophobes’ appear particularly concerned about the security of the host country, Canada, in this case and have accused the Canadian authorities of being slipshod on terrorism laws and granting asylum to terrorists and of endangering people’s lives.
The ‘boatophobes’ aka xenophobes from Canada would still have some legitimate concerns, because it is their country that is ‘under threat’ from foreigners descending on their soil to avail of their hospitality.
Of grave concern is that ‘boatophobic’ experts in South and South East Asia are defining the ‘security’ requirements of the Western nations.
Their arguments are not only patronising and racist but also dehumanise and demonise the Sri Lankan Tamil community, who have more than one reason to escape the brutalities of life in a country that they cannot even call ‘home’.
The question is how do we fix the problem of discontent among Sri Lankans who are Non Budhist . The solution is primarily in the hands of the Sinhalese Budhist monks and Sinhalese Budhists ,who have to realize that Sri Lanka is for all born Sri Lankans – irrespective of any ethnicity and Religon. After hundreds of years of foreign domination this is a difficult pill for the Sinhalese Budhists to swallow.
The first problem is that the Majority Sinhalese Budhists can not see or understand this fact, they are not aware that there attitude that Sri Lanka is primarily for Sinhala Budhists is erroneous. They are totally brain-washed into thinking that every one in Sri Lanka who is not a Sinhala Budhist has to be second class.
Sad to say, even the President , though married to a Christian behaves in this fashion. Visiting a Kovil or Church does not make the President realize the disparity he himself suffers from.
No one dares to tell him this for fear of being abducted in a White van.
There has to be a deffinite change of heart amongst nearly 19 million Sri Lankan Budhists. They never asked themselves why did 99% of the Burghers leave the island? What is wrong with Sri Lanka, that a boat load of 500 Tamils are seeking Refugee status in Canada. Why are other Boat loads of Tamils Seeking refugee status in Newzealand and Australia? It is because they do not feel Sri Lanka can give them a safe home guranteed of human rights.
This task is made near impossible on account of the Voting system in Sri Lanka. The Politicians want to appease the voters -19 million Sinhala Budhists. No Sinhala Budhist at this stage will ever agree to my thoughts above. As a result Sri Lanka is doomed and labelled as a Nazi type of people who do not practice the greatest thoughts and principlas the Buddha thry belive in preached.
Ranil Wickremasinghe did try in a peaceful way to appese the Tamil Terrorists by keeping the Military in a non combatant role , hoping Prabahakaran would come round., but Ranil never put into motion the reconsiliation effort to convince and give the Tamils the feeling that they are one of the most valuable and indispensable ethnic group in Sri Lanka. He did not have the guts to go to the Sinhala Budhists and tell them that they have to change. Neither is the present President doing the same. He will not risk going against or rather try to convince the Majority of Sri Lankan voters – the Sinhala Budhists to change.
The president won a war but appears to have lost the country.
The Majority of Sri Lankans (nearly 18 million are Sinhalese Budhists) , how does one convince a Sihalese Budhist, that, a Tamil , a Christian , a Muslim , a Hindu ,a Burgher, a Malay could be the President of Sri Lanka?
The minorities also have got to work towards reconsiliation with the Majority.They have to focus that dividing the country is not the solution. The minorities have to work as they have been doing but without violence . This is where Prabahakaran went wrong.
The Mahatma brought a revolutionary change to how the world views – human beings, sadly, I feel Prabahakaran would have come close if his effort was non violent. There is no doubt there is disparity towards the Tamils, Burghers ,Muslims and non Sinhalese minorities in Sri Lanka. Prabahakaran sadly missed the peacful protest that could have won him a Nobel prize. He had no compassion for the other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. The protest from the inorities must not look down on the Sinhalese majority but extend a hand in friendship and patriotism toeard ONE SRI LANKA.
I am a Sinhalese but very very grateful to my Tamil, Burgher,Malay and Muslim friends. They are as close to me and valauable to me as my own family.
If one investigates, one will find , that, most of the non Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are the most Patriotic Sri Lankans one will ever find. Every non Sinhalese expatriate thinks of Sri Lanka as his/her motherland, are very proud to be Sri Lanka. They long to be able to do well in Sri Lanka economically. Even thogh they may do well abroad. This has been resounding from almost every Sri Lankan non Sinhalese expatriate abrod.
Those who clamour for a seperate State are misguided and should re-investigate their processes at achieving equallity in the island.
Dear President , you have achived many great things for Sri Lanka no questions asked.
You now have the Power to change the attitude of the Sinhalese Budhists. Get the Sri Lankan Buddhist Monks to turn into action what they preach. Make Sri Lanka change into a compassionate country which treats every human being with respect, and also respect the fact that he /she has the freedom of speech without insulting or slander.
You may yet win back the country you lost, when you won the war in Sri Lanka in June of 2009.
Why all the fuss over an insignificant number of boat people?
In 2009, about 34,000 refugees came to Canada
So 490 refugees is 1.5 % only
The Government of Sri Lanka repeated daily warnings to Canada in April, May, June, July and August that vicious Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Sri Lanka also alerted the Canadian news paper that the boat is full of criminals?
Sri Lanka government propagandists posted zillion posts on the internet under every newspaper article in Canada. Read a few and you know what I mean!
Why does the Sri Lanka Government is fanning the flames of the Xenophobia ?
Why Canadians are so gullible and creating the explosive racial hatred toward the Tamils?
Sri Lanka expertly alienated the one group against another – the divide and rule strategy
And another thing, they don’t want the war crime witnesses reach safety of Canada where no one is afraid to tell the truth .
I am not all surprised to see a heap of racist comments from a large number of Tamils. I am sure most of them are cozily settled in western countries and have been helping LTTE financially to buy arms, make suicide bombs, kill innocent civilians (mostly women and children) of border villages mercilessly etc. etc. with the pipe dream of holidaying in an Eelam state one day. Well that pipe dream came to an end when Sri Lanka as a nation demolished the bloody terrorist of LTTE including its blood thirsty leader and we know as a fact that all those who supported LTTE and its leader directly and indirectly (even calling him the sun god!) cannot bear to stomach the reality of the triumph of natural justice! What one has to realize is that LTTE is a listed terrorist organization and anyone who directly or indirectly aids and abates such terrorists are also guilty of terrorism. I am surprised to see these “Foreign” Tamils writing that Tamils are being persecuted in Sri Lanka. This is a damn lie! Only terrorists are being persecuted for their crimes. However, if such terrorists choose to rehabilitate themselves and work for the upliftment of the country they have been pardoned. A good example is the former terrorist Colonel Karuna. He is a Government Minister today. The other striking example is KP who was a top LTTE leader and was considered as the successor to Prabhakaran. Although KP was arrested, today he is cooperating with the government of Sri Lanka and is being treated as a buddy by the government. In fact he is actively mobilizing himself to uplift the areas ravaged by the war and help the Tamils in those areas. Unfortunately some of the “Foreign” Tamils and other western blokes think that allowing terrorists to continue as terrorists (without reforming themselves) is a human right! Remember one human’s human right ends at the tip of the nose of another human. Please accept the truth without spreading the germ of diabolical lies and hatred
Thamilvany had suffered unimaginable horrors from the indiscriminate Sri Lanka Army Shelling, Sri Lanka Government induced starvation, the Sri Lankan Concentration camps
Here her depth interview with Thamilvany on her experience working in a makeshift hospital in Vanni during Tamil War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPwEYdR0RA&fe…
Not a crime to seek asylum
WINNIPEG, Man. – It is extremely regrettable that the Tamil refugee claimants who arrived in Canada in early August by boat arrived under such a cloud of suspicion, says a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) spokesperson.
“It is not a crime to seek asylum and no one is ineligible until their refugee claim has been assessed and denied,” said Ed Wiebe, MCC Canada’s refugee assistance coordinator.
Canadian and international refugee laws recognize that people fleeing persecution will arrive in other countries by plane, foot or boat.
The 490 Tamil refugee claimants that arrived in Canada in early August by boat are in compliance of these laws, said Wiebe.
Canada’s refugee laws, he said, are designed to examine each claim on an individual basis and address issues of criminality and security.
In keeping with Canada’s humanitarian tradition and international obligations, Canada provides protection to over 15,000 asylum seekers a year.
“A boat load of 500 refugee claimants does not overwhelm the system,” said Wiebe. “Our Canadian system is adequate to deal fairly with these claims.”
Just a month before the Tamil refugee claimants arrived on Canadian shores, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the legislation that governs the refugee claim process in Canada.
MCC Canada presented a brief to the parliamentary hearings where the amendments to the legislation were discussed.
“Canada had a good system but we (Canada) made a good system even better,” said Wiebe.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/not_a_crime_t…
Thamilvany had suffered unimaginable horrors from the indiscriminate Sri Lanka Army Shelling, Sri Lanka Government induced starvation, the Sri Lankan Concentration camps
Here her depth interview with Thamilvany on her experience working in a makeshift hospital in Vanni during Tamil War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPwEYdR0RA&fe…
Thamilvany had suffered unimaginable horrors from the indiscriminate Sri Lanka Army Shelling, Sri Lanka Government induced starvation, the Sri Lankan Concentration camps
Here her depth interview with Thamilvany on her experience working in a makeshift hospital in Vanni during Tamil War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPwEYdR0RA&fe…
Not a crime to seek asylum
WINNIPEG, Man. – It is extremely regrettable that the Tamil refugee claimants who arrived in Canada in early August by boat arrived under such a cloud of suspicion, says a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) spokesperson.
“It is not a crime to seek asylum and no one is ineligible until their refugee claim has been assessed and denied,” said Ed Wiebe, MCC Canada’s refugee assistance coordinator.
Canadian and international refugee laws recognize that people fleeing persecution will arrive in other countries by plane, foot or boat.
The 490 Tamil refugee claimants that arrived in Canada in early August by boat are in compliance of these laws, said Wiebe.
Canada’s refugee laws, he said, are designed to examine each claim on an individual basis and address issues of criminality and security.
In keeping with Canada’s humanitarian tradition and international obligations, Canada provides protection to over 15,000 asylum seekers a year.
“A boat load of 500 refugee claimants does not overwhelm the system,” said Wiebe. “Our Canadian system is adequate to deal fairly with these claims.”
Just a month before the Tamil refugee claimants arrived on Canadian shores, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the legislation that governs the refugee claim process in Canada.
MCC Canada presented a brief to the parliamentary hearings where the amendments to the legislation were discussed.
“Canada had a good system but we (Canada) made a good system even better,” said Wiebe.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/not_a_crime_t…
Not a crime to seek asylum
WINNIPEG, Man. – It is extremely regrettable that the Tamil refugee claimants who arrived in Canada in early August by boat arrived under such a cloud of suspicion, says a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) spokesperson.
“It is not a crime to seek asylum and no one is ineligible until their refugee claim has been assessed and denied,” said Ed Wiebe, MCC Canada’s refugee assistance coordinator.
Canadian and international refugee laws recognize that people fleeing persecution will arrive in other countries by plane, foot or boat.
The 490 Tamil refugee claimants that arrived in Canada in early August by boat are in compliance of these laws, said Wiebe.
Canada’s refugee laws, he said, are designed to examine each claim on an individual basis and address issues of criminality and security.
In keeping with Canada’s humanitarian tradition and international obligations, Canada provides protection to over 15,000 asylum seekers a year.
“A boat load of 500 refugee claimants does not overwhelm the system,” said Wiebe. “Our Canadian system is adequate to deal fairly with these claims.”
Just a month before the Tamil refugee claimants arrived on Canadian shores, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the legislation that governs the refugee claim process in Canada.
MCC Canada presented a brief to the parliamentary hearings where the amendments to the legislation were discussed.
“Canada had a good system but we (Canada) made a good system even better,” said Wiebe.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/not_a_crime_t…
Sri Lanka Army" deliberately shelled civilians," accuses UN's departing Holmes
United Nation's Human Rights Co-ordinator, John Holmes, in a parting shot at Colombo the end of his 3-year tenure at the UN, defended his department's funding of the Sri Lanka government's internment camps where more than 350,000 held for several months while admitting the Sri Lanka government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals, Inner City Press reported.
When asked about criticism of Holme's and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers, Holmes called the killings in Trincomalee as the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. Holmes did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group, ICP said in the report.
Holmes said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed
Mahinda Rajapakse means to be President for life
The charade is finally over. President Rajapakse has informed Sri Lanka’s Micawberian Opposition that he intends to remove presidential term-limits and run for a third (and, the Grim Reaper permitting, a fourth and a fifth…) term. Clearly Rajapakse père means to be President for life, and be succeeded by Rajapakse fils. The UNP has been deluded, yet again, and (wittingly or unwittingly) made to serve the dynastic ambitions of the Ruling Family.
Now that the truth is out, the UNP cannot continue to cling to the mirage of consensual politics. Here is an issue which must be fought and can be won. If the Rajapakse plan to remove presidential term-limits is successful, Sri Lanka will succumb to Dynastic Rule. But, if the proposed amendment is defeated, there is a fighting chance for a non-Rajapakse to succeed Mahinda Rajapakse, six years from now. This is a battle which cannot be evaded by any who abhors the thought of Sri Lanka in the grip of a tyrannous and rapacious Family Oligarchy.
Removing presidential term limits while preserving the powers of executive presidency is incompatible with democracy. Consequently this is not a partisan issue but a straightforward battle for democracy in which all opposition parties (from the UNP to the JVP and the DNA, from the SLMC to the TNA and the TULF) can join, without reservations about political principles or electoral spoils. Since, in the final analysis, the only real beneficiaries of the proposed amendment are some members of the Rajapakse Family and their hangers-on, this issue can be used to drive a wedge not only between the Ruling Family and the Ruling Party but also within the Ruling Family, causing the isolation of Rajapakse père and fils, (Would Basil Rajapakse, for instance, be elated at the thought of a President Namal?) The Rajapakses, in their unctuous greed, have presented the opposition with the ideal single-issue campaign which can ‘unite the many to defeat the few’. Will the opposition grab this opportunity or miss it to the detriment of our common future?
Pregnant Tamil migrant could give birth while in custody.
The clock is ticking for the Tamil woman who arrived on board the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13 with 491 men, women and children. They all remain in detention because CBSA has not yet confirmed their identities.
The woman is one of four who arrived pregnant, but she is the furthest along, according to lawyers. She is being detained in the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, 70 kilometres east of Vancouver. Her husband, who accompanied her on the Sun Sea, is being held in the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.
She is due to deliver Sept. 25, her lawyer said, and her third round of hearings is scheduled for Sept. 17, which is a week earlier than the expected 30 days
The women at Friday’s hearing complained that they were being made to sit for long hours on chairs. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/brit…
I am not all surprised to see a heap of racist comments from a large number of Tamils. I am sure most of them are cozily settled in western countries and have been helping LTTE financially to buy arms, make suicide bombs, kill innocent civilians (mostly women and children) of border villages mercilessly etc. etc. with the pipe dream of holidaying in an Eelam state one day. Well that pipe dream came to an end when Sri Lanka as a nation demolished the bloody terrorist of LTTE including its blood thirsty leader and we know as a fact that all those who supported LTTE and its leader directly and indirectly (even calling him the sun god!) cannot bear to stomach the reality of the triumph of natural justice! What one has to realize is that LTTE is a listed terrorist organization and anyone who directly or indirectly aids and abates such terrorists are also guilty of terrorism. I am surprised to see these “Foreign” Tamils writing that Tamils are being persecuted in Sri Lanka. This is a damn lie! Only terrorists are being persecuted for their crimes. However, if such terrorists choose to rehabilitate themselves and work for the upliftment of the country they have been pardoned. A good example is the former terrorist Colonel Karuna. He is a Government Minister today. The other striking example is KP who was a top LTTE leader and was considered as the successor to Prabhakaran. Although KP was arrested, today he is cooperating with the government of Sri Lanka and is being treated as a buddy by the government. In fact he is actively mobilizing himself to uplift the areas ravaged by the war and help the Tamils in those areas. Unfortunately some of the “Foreign” Tamils and other western blokes think that allowing terrorists to continue as terrorists (without reforming themselves) is a human right! Remember one human’s human right ends at the tip of the nose of another human. Please accept the truth without spreading the germ of diabolical lies and hatred
Pregnant Tamil migrant could give birth while in custody.
The clock is ticking for the Tamil woman who arrived on board the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13 with 491 men, women and children. They all remain in detention because CBSA has not yet confirmed their identities.
The woman is one of four who arrived pregnant, but she is the furthest along, according to lawyers. She is being detained in the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, 70 kilometres east of Vancouver. Her husband, who accompanied her on the Sun Sea, is being held in the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.
She is due to deliver Sept. 25, her lawyer said, and her third round of hearings is scheduled for Sept. 17, which is a week earlier than the expected 30 days
The women at Friday’s hearing complained that they were being made to sit for long hours on chairs. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/brit…
Pregnant Tamil migrant could give birth while in custody.
The clock is ticking for the Tamil woman who arrived on board the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13 with 491 men, women and children. They all remain in detention because CBSA has not yet confirmed their identities.
The woman is one of four who arrived pregnant, but she is the furthest along, according to lawyers. She is being detained in the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, 70 kilometres east of Vancouver. Her husband, who accompanied her on the Sun Sea, is being held in the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.
She is due to deliver Sept. 25, her lawyer said, and her third round of hearings is scheduled for Sept. 17, which is a week earlier than the expected 30 days
The women at Friday’s hearing complained that they were being made to sit for long hours on chairs. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/brit…
Thamilvany had suffered unimaginable horrors from the indiscriminate Sri Lanka Army Shelling, Sri Lanka Government induced starvation, the Sri Lankan Concentration camps
Here her depth interview with Thamilvany on her experience working in a makeshift hospital in Vanni during Tamil War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPwEYdR0RA&feature=player_embedded
Not a crime to seek asylum
WINNIPEG, Man. – It is extremely regrettable that the Tamil refugee claimants who arrived in Canada in early August by boat arrived under such a cloud of suspicion, says a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) spokesperson.
“It is not a crime to seek asylum and no one is ineligible until their refugee claim has been assessed and denied,” said Ed Wiebe, MCC Canada’s refugee assistance coordinator.
Canadian and international refugee laws recognize that people fleeing persecution will arrive in other countries by plane, foot or boat.
The 490 Tamil refugee claimants that arrived in Canada in early August by boat are in compliance of these laws, said Wiebe.
Canada’s refugee laws, he said, are designed to examine each claim on an individual basis and address issues of criminality and security.
In keeping with Canada’s humanitarian tradition and international obligations, Canada provides protection to over 15,000 asylum seekers a year.
“A boat load of 500 refugee claimants does not overwhelm the system,” said Wiebe. “Our Canadian system is adequate to deal fairly with these claims.”
Just a month before the Tamil refugee claimants arrived on Canadian shores, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the legislation that governs the refugee claim process in Canada.
MCC Canada presented a brief to the parliamentary hearings where the amendments to the legislation were discussed.
“Canada had a good system but we (Canada) made a good system even better,” said Wiebe.
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/08/not_a_crime_to_seek_asylum_men.html#more
Sri Lanka Army” deliberately shelled civilians,” accuses UN’s departing Holmes
United Nation’s Human Rights Co-ordinator, John Holmes, in a parting shot at Colombo the end of his 3-year tenure at the UN, defended his department’s funding of the Sri Lanka government’s internment camps where more than 350,000 held for several months while admitting the Sri Lanka government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals, Inner City Press reported.
When asked about criticism of Holme’s and the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka, for pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers, Holmes called the killings in Trincomalee as the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. Holmes did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group, ICP said in the report.
Holmes said there’s a need to know how many civilians were killed
Mahinda Rajapakse means to be President for life
The charade is finally over. President Rajapakse has informed Sri Lanka’s Micawberian Opposition that he intends to remove presidential term-limits and run for a third (and, the Grim Reaper permitting, a fourth and a fifth…) term. Clearly Rajapakse père means to be President for life, and be succeeded by Rajapakse fils. The UNP has been deluded, yet again, and (wittingly or unwittingly) made to serve the dynastic ambitions of the Ruling Family.
Now that the truth is out, the UNP cannot continue to cling to the mirage of consensual politics. Here is an issue which must be fought and can be won. If the Rajapakse plan to remove presidential term-limits is successful, Sri Lanka will succumb to Dynastic Rule. But, if the proposed amendment is defeated, there is a fighting chance for a non-Rajapakse to succeed Mahinda Rajapakse, six years from now. This is a battle which cannot be evaded by any who abhors the thought of Sri Lanka in the grip of a tyrannous and rapacious Family Oligarchy.
Removing presidential term limits while preserving the powers of executive presidency is incompatible with democracy. Consequently this is not a partisan issue but a straightforward battle for democracy in which all opposition parties (from the UNP to the JVP and the DNA, from the SLMC to the TNA and the TULF) can join, without reservations about political principles or electoral spoils. Since, in the final analysis, the only real beneficiaries of the proposed amendment are some members of the Rajapakse Family and their hangers-on, this issue can be used to drive a wedge not only between the Ruling Family and the Ruling Party but also within the Ruling Family, causing the isolation of Rajapakse père and fils, (Would Basil Rajapakse, for instance, be elated at the thought of a President Namal?) The Rajapakses, in their unctuous greed, have presented the opposition with the ideal single-issue campaign which can ‘unite the many to defeat the few’. Will the opposition grab this opportunity or miss it to the detriment of our common future?
Pregnant Tamil migrant could give birth while in custody.
The clock is ticking for the Tamil woman who arrived on board the MV Sun Sea on Aug. 13 with 491 men, women and children. They all remain in detention because CBSA has not yet confirmed their identities.
The woman is one of four who arrived pregnant, but she is the furthest along, according to lawyers. She is being detained in the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, 70 kilometres east of Vancouver. Her husband, who accompanied her on the Sun Sea, is being held in the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre.
She is due to deliver Sept. 25, her lawyer said, and her third round of hearings is scheduled for Sept. 17, which is a week earlier than the expected 30 days
The women at Friday’s hearing complained that they were being made to sit for long hours on chairs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/lawyer-seeks-quick-processing-for-pregnant-tamil/article1688489/
Tamils of a different stripe http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tami…
As the debate about Tamil boat people plays out, Canadians might ask themselves, “In whose interest?” Who has muddied the debate with suggestions that the boats are filled with criminals and terrorists, and why? Again, why all the fuss over an insignificant number of people, when Canada does not have a boat-people problem of the magnitude of Australia’s? Government of Sri Lanka warnings that Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Canadians are right to be concerned about the security of their borders. Globalized terrorism is a threat to Canadians, as it is to Australians. And national identities are a precious commodity. In an unsteady world, and with a rising backlash in Europe directed at Muslim immigration, both Canadian and Australian governments are obliged to soothe these concerns, with measured immigration and refugee intakes. Both countries need strong border protection policies that deter human smuggling and provide a sense of security to their citizens. Somehow a balance must be struck with our international obligations. That is all the more reason why Canadians must resist letting the debate become confused by wild claims.
Sri Lankan government officials and self-proclaimed experts played the understandable worries of Australians like a fiddle as boats neared their shores. Australians were told that these were economic migrants, taking advantage of their country’s generosity and slack intake laws – in fact, among the toughest in the world. Sri Lankan diplomatic representatives asserted that those on board had terrorist links. Finally, the plainly unfounded claim was made that fully half were terrorists and criminals. Actually, nobody knew who was on board, why they were there or who was behind these voyages.
Let’s be clear: The Tamil Tigers were a menace, and there is reason for sensible precaution. In the 1990s, they set the pace for globalizing terrorist networks. In countries such as Canada, they provided seed money for legitimate businesses, and then skimmed the profits. They packaged arms deals, and maximized their purchases by selling onward to other insurgent and terrorist groups in places like the Horn of Africa. They cleverly exploited that least governed of places, the ocean, purchasing a fleet of a dozen merchant ships with which they collected and delivered those arms. The profits were used to buy more weapons, communications equipment and industrial machinery for their own nascent village-based arms industry. They manufactured rudimentary submarines and attack boats, and converted Czech-made leisure planes into an air force of sorts.
During three decades of insurgency, Tiger operatives using suicidal tactics killed thousands of Sri Lankan civilians, and wreaked havoc on the country’s vital tourism industry. In 2001 they blew up Air Lanka’s entire fleet as it sat on the tarmac in Colombo. The Tigers blew up banks, buses and barracks. They assassinated dozens of key leaders and military officers, killed one president and maimed another, and attacked any Tamil leader who tried to offer alternative moderate paths for Tamil grievances. Millions of ordinary Sri Lankans lived in fear that they might be caught up in the violence. But what of the experts’ suggestion that the Tamil Tigers were linked to al-Qaeda?
As Michael Ignatieff says of the troublesome “terrorist” word, the equally fuzzy “link” word ought to be banned from the fraught boat-people debate. It is a word better suited to tabloids and gossip columns. True, in the late 1970s, a handful of Tamils trained with Palestinian factions in Lebanon. But “links” to al-Qaeda look rather shaky if one considers that every other terrorist group was there at the same time. The IRA was there, and Gerry Adams is not “linked” to al-Qaeda.
Apart from all that, should Canadians consider the Tamil Tigers a threat to their own security today? The answer is no. Aside from the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, their violence was shrewdly confined to Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were a textbook insurgent group that resorted to terrorist tactics. Like the Kurds, Palestinians, Irish Catholics, the Karen of Burma or the Uighurs of China, the Tamils harboured a grievance born of both perceived and actual injustices. The Tigers mobilized those grievances into a broad-based revolution against the Sri Lankan state.
The basis of their gripes is a no-brainer. In 1956, the Sinhalese-dominated government made Sinhala the official language. Tamil passports, degrees, legal judgments and land titles were issued in a language they could not understand. In 1972, the government further marginalized Hindu Tamils by making Buddhism the state religion. That same year, the government introduced legislation that discriminated against Tamil entry to university. In 1983, an orchestrated pogrom killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Tamils, and burned tens of thousands of others out of their homes and businesses. Over the following year, the Tigers grew from a rag-tag team of 50 men into an army of thousands.
For years, few people across the world took much notice of the remote war that followed the pogrom in Sri Lanka. In October, 2001, the United States, concerned about the murky and poorly understood cross-pollination among terrorist organizations, finally began to crack down on Tamil Tiger fundraising activities on U.S. soil. They had not bothered much before, and did not consider them a threat to American interests. But with the global war on terror afoot, it seemed a bit rich to ignore the terrorist problem of one country, while asking them to take the U.S. war seriously.
In May, 2009, through a confluence of good management, foreign assistance and a series of Tiger strategic errors, the insurgents were crushed by the dogged brawn of the army of Sri Lanka. Their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed, and the population they had controlled for almost two decades rounded up. Tiger territory was subsumed once more into the Sri Lankan state. A few months later, a dazed Kumaran Pathmanathan, the kingpin of the Tigers’ global finance operation, was caught. The government and its military leaders boasted that the highly centralized organization was finished. Nobody seriously believes that the Tamil Tigers are a threat any more.
By late 2009, 50 boats had been intercepted by Australian customs. In that bumper year, around 3,500 refugees made the perilous journey, and arrived safely. Even at that rate, the Australian prime minister conceded that it would take 20 years to fill Australia’s largest sports stadium with boat people. Of the Tamils who made it, spurious claims of terrorism, criminality and association with al-Qaeda were levelled, similar to allegations made in Canada.
Guided by its international legal obligations, Australia does not grant refugee status if it believes that a person has committed serious crimes. The vast majority were recognized by Australia as refugees, based on UN Refugee Agency guidelines and the UN Refugee Convention. A handful of arrivals were rejected by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the equivalent of Canada’s CSIS. To date, nobody knows why. It later emerged that ASIO hadn’t bothered to interview those who were rejected, so it seems likely (and odd, under the circumstances) that they largely relied on information provided by the Sri Lankan government. Of course, the defining feature of a refugee is that they have a well-founded reason to fear persecution back home.
Persecuted by whom? By the same people who are trying to dupe Canadians into turning the boats back. Sri Lanka is now one of the most highly militarized societies in Asia – quite a claim to fame if one considers China, Burma and Pakistan. It also features on lists of societies that kill their journalists and humanitarian workers. It manages public dissent and supplements law enforcement with death squads. The UN is currently reviewing 5,749 cases of Sri Lanka’s “disappeared.” The UN has also called for a meaningful inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians perished in the final months of the war. The government says that it did not spill a drop of civilian blood.
Will things improve? We don’t know yet. Fifteen months after the war’s end, and with an electoral victory under his belt, there is no serious effort from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remedy Tamil grievances with a political solution. Although the nastiest of the bloodletting has slowed, Sri Lanka remains a land of low-level repression where men in white vans snatch people curbside. Louise Arbour, now president of the International Crisis Group, says that a fig-leaf government inquiry into accusations that it did spill quite a lot of civilian blood is “bound to fail” because of the government’s long history “of denial and impunity.”
Recently vanquished, and with hundreds of thousands accused of “links” with the Tamil Tiger cause, many Tamils have a well-founded fear of persecution. It is precisely these types of people who reached Australia by boat, whose claims were ultimately vindicated and who are now settling in, grateful for sanctuary. As for whether the families who arrived in Canada this month were products of a smuggling racket or have jumped a queue, the Canadian interest is to keep an open mind, and to resist a vital debate being hijacked by foreign agendas.
Tamils of a different stripe http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tami…
As the debate about Tamil boat people plays out, Canadians might ask themselves, “In whose interest?” Who has muddied the debate with suggestions that the boats are filled with criminals and terrorists, and why? Again, why all the fuss over an insignificant number of people, when Canada does not have a boat-people problem of the magnitude of Australia’s? Government of Sri Lanka warnings that Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Canadians are right to be concerned about the security of their borders. Globalized terrorism is a threat to Canadians, as it is to Australians. And national identities are a precious commodity. In an unsteady world, and with a rising backlash in Europe directed at Muslim immigration, both Canadian and Australian governments are obliged to soothe these concerns, with measured immigration and refugee intakes. Both countries need strong border protection policies that deter human smuggling and provide a sense of security to their citizens. Somehow a balance must be struck with our international obligations. That is all the more reason why Canadians must resist letting the debate become confused by wild claims.
Sri Lankan government officials and self-proclaimed experts played the understandable worries of Australians like a fiddle as boats neared their shores. Australians were told that these were economic migrants, taking advantage of their country’s generosity and slack intake laws – in fact, among the toughest in the world. Sri Lankan diplomatic representatives asserted that those on board had terrorist links. Finally, the plainly unfounded claim was made that fully half were terrorists and criminals. Actually, nobody knew who was on board, why they were there or who was behind these voyages.
Let’s be clear: The Tamil Tigers were a menace, and there is reason for sensible precaution. In the 1990s, they set the pace for globalizing terrorist networks. In countries such as Canada, they provided seed money for legitimate businesses, and then skimmed the profits. They packaged arms deals, and maximized their purchases by selling onward to other insurgent and terrorist groups in places like the Horn of Africa. They cleverly exploited that least governed of places, the ocean, purchasing a fleet of a dozen merchant ships with which they collected and delivered those arms. The profits were used to buy more weapons, communications equipment and industrial machinery for their own nascent village-based arms industry. They manufactured rudimentary submarines and attack boats, and converted Czech-made leisure planes into an air force of sorts.
During three decades of insurgency, Tiger operatives using suicidal tactics killed thousands of Sri Lankan civilians, and wreaked havoc on the country’s vital tourism industry. In 2001 they blew up Air Lanka’s entire fleet as it sat on the tarmac in Colombo. The Tigers blew up banks, buses and barracks. They assassinated dozens of key leaders and military officers, killed one president and maimed another, and attacked any Tamil leader who tried to offer alternative moderate paths for Tamil grievances. Millions of ordinary Sri Lankans lived in fear that they might be caught up in the violence. But what of the experts’ suggestion that the Tamil Tigers were linked to al-Qaeda?
As Michael Ignatieff says of the troublesome “terrorist” word, the equally fuzzy “link” word ought to be banned from the fraught boat-people debate. It is a word better suited to tabloids and gossip columns. True, in the late 1970s, a handful of Tamils trained with Palestinian factions in Lebanon. But “links” to al-Qaeda look rather shaky if one considers that every other terrorist group was there at the same time. The IRA was there, and Gerry Adams is not “linked” to al-Qaeda.
Apart from all that, should Canadians consider the Tamil Tigers a threat to their own security today? The answer is no. Aside from the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, their violence was shrewdly confined to Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were a textbook insurgent group that resorted to terrorist tactics. Like the Kurds, Palestinians, Irish Catholics, the Karen of Burma or the Uighurs of China, the Tamils harboured a grievance born of both perceived and actual injustices. The Tigers mobilized those grievances into a broad-based revolution against the Sri Lankan state.
The basis of their gripes is a no-brainer. In 1956, the Sinhalese-dominated government made Sinhala the official language. Tamil passports, degrees, legal judgments and land titles were issued in a language they could not understand. In 1972, the government further marginalized Hindu Tamils by making Buddhism the state religion. That same year, the government introduced legislation that discriminated against Tamil entry to university. In 1983, an orchestrated pogrom killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Tamils, and burned tens of thousands of others out of their homes and businesses. Over the following year, the Tigers grew from a rag-tag team of 50 men into an army of thousands.
For years, few people across the world took much notice of the remote war that followed the pogrom in Sri Lanka. In October, 2001, the United States, concerned about the murky and poorly understood cross-pollination among terrorist organizations, finally began to crack down on Tamil Tiger fundraising activities on U.S. soil. They had not bothered much before, and did not consider them a threat to American interests. But with the global war on terror afoot, it seemed a bit rich to ignore the terrorist problem of one country, while asking them to take the U.S. war seriously.
In May, 2009, through a confluence of good management, foreign assistance and a series of Tiger strategic errors, the insurgents were crushed by the dogged brawn of the army of Sri Lanka. Their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed, and the population they had controlled for almost two decades rounded up. Tiger territory was subsumed once more into the Sri Lankan state. A few months later, a dazed Kumaran Pathmanathan, the kingpin of the Tigers’ global finance operation, was caught. The government and its military leaders boasted that the highly centralized organization was finished. Nobody seriously believes that the Tamil Tigers are a threat any more.
By late 2009, 50 boats had been intercepted by Australian customs. In that bumper year, around 3,500 refugees made the perilous journey, and arrived safely. Even at that rate, the Australian prime minister conceded that it would take 20 years to fill Australia’s largest sports stadium with boat people. Of the Tamils who made it, spurious claims of terrorism, criminality and association with al-Qaeda were levelled, similar to allegations made in Canada.
Guided by its international legal obligations, Australia does not grant refugee status if it believes that a person has committed serious crimes. The vast majority were recognized by Australia as refugees, based on UN Refugee Agency guidelines and the UN Refugee Convention. A handful of arrivals were rejected by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the equivalent of Canada’s CSIS. To date, nobody knows why. It later emerged that ASIO hadn’t bothered to interview those who were rejected, so it seems likely (and odd, under the circumstances) that they largely relied on information provided by the Sri Lankan government. Of course, the defining feature of a refugee is that they have a well-founded reason to fear persecution back home.
Persecuted by whom? By the same people who are trying to dupe Canadians into turning the boats back. Sri Lanka is now one of the most highly militarized societies in Asia – quite a claim to fame if one considers China, Burma and Pakistan. It also features on lists of societies that kill their journalists and humanitarian workers. It manages public dissent and supplements law enforcement with death squads. The UN is currently reviewing 5,749 cases of Sri Lanka’s “disappeared.” The UN has also called for a meaningful inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians perished in the final months of the war. The government says that it did not spill a drop of civilian blood.
Will things improve? We don’t know yet. Fifteen months after the war’s end, and with an electoral victory under his belt, there is no serious effort from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remedy Tamil grievances with a political solution. Although the nastiest of the bloodletting has slowed, Sri Lanka remains a land of low-level repression where men in white vans snatch people curbside. Louise Arbour, now president of the International Crisis Group, says that a fig-leaf government inquiry into accusations that it did spill quite a lot of civilian blood is “bound to fail” because of the government’s long history “of denial and impunity.”
Recently vanquished, and with hundreds of thousands accused of “links” with the Tamil Tiger cause, many Tamils have a well-founded fear of persecution. It is precisely these types of people who reached Australia by boat, whose claims were ultimately vindicated and who are now settling in, grateful for sanctuary. As for whether the families who arrived in Canada this month were products of a smuggling racket or have jumped a queue, the Canadian interest is to keep an open mind, and to resist a vital debate being hijacked by foreign agendas.
Tamils of a different stripe http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tami…
As the debate about Tamil boat people plays out, Canadians might ask themselves, “In whose interest?” Who has muddied the debate with suggestions that the boats are filled with criminals and terrorists, and why? Again, why all the fuss over an insignificant number of people, when Canada does not have a boat-people problem of the magnitude of Australia’s? Government of Sri Lanka warnings that Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Canadians are right to be concerned about the security of their borders. Globalized terrorism is a threat to Canadians, as it is to Australians. And national identities are a precious commodity. In an unsteady world, and with a rising backlash in Europe directed at Muslim immigration, both Canadian and Australian governments are obliged to soothe these concerns, with measured immigration and refugee intakes. Both countries need strong border protection policies that deter human smuggling and provide a sense of security to their citizens. Somehow a balance must be struck with our international obligations. That is all the more reason why Canadians must resist letting the debate become confused by wild claims.
Sri Lankan government officials and self-proclaimed experts played the understandable worries of Australians like a fiddle as boats neared their shores. Australians were told that these were economic migrants, taking advantage of their country’s generosity and slack intake laws – in fact, among the toughest in the world. Sri Lankan diplomatic representatives asserted that those on board had terrorist links. Finally, the plainly unfounded claim was made that fully half were terrorists and criminals. Actually, nobody knew who was on board, why they were there or who was behind these voyages.
Let’s be clear: The Tamil Tigers were a menace, and there is reason for sensible precaution. In the 1990s, they set the pace for globalizing terrorist networks. In countries such as Canada, they provided seed money for legitimate businesses, and then skimmed the profits. They packaged arms deals, and maximized their purchases by selling onward to other insurgent and terrorist groups in places like the Horn of Africa. They cleverly exploited that least governed of places, the ocean, purchasing a fleet of a dozen merchant ships with which they collected and delivered those arms. The profits were used to buy more weapons, communications equipment and industrial machinery for their own nascent village-based arms industry. They manufactured rudimentary submarines and attack boats, and converted Czech-made leisure planes into an air force of sorts.
During three decades of insurgency, Tiger operatives using suicidal tactics killed thousands of Sri Lankan civilians, and wreaked havoc on the country’s vital tourism industry. In 2001 they blew up Air Lanka’s entire fleet as it sat on the tarmac in Colombo. The Tigers blew up banks, buses and barracks. They assassinated dozens of key leaders and military officers, killed one president and maimed another, and attacked any Tamil leader who tried to offer alternative moderate paths for Tamil grievances. Millions of ordinary Sri Lankans lived in fear that they might be caught up in the violence. But what of the experts’ suggestion that the Tamil Tigers were linked to al-Qaeda?
As Michael Ignatieff says of the troublesome “terrorist” word, the equally fuzzy “link” word ought to be banned from the fraught boat-people debate. It is a word better suited to tabloids and gossip columns. True, in the late 1970s, a handful of Tamils trained with Palestinian factions in Lebanon. But “links” to al-Qaeda look rather shaky if one considers that every other terrorist group was there at the same time. The IRA was there, and Gerry Adams is not “linked” to al-Qaeda.
Apart from all that, should Canadians consider the Tamil Tigers a threat to their own security today? The answer is no. Aside from the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, their violence was shrewdly confined to Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were a textbook insurgent group that resorted to terrorist tactics. Like the Kurds, Palestinians, Irish Catholics, the Karen of Burma or the Uighurs of China, the Tamils harboured a grievance born of both perceived and actual injustices. The Tigers mobilized those grievances into a broad-based revolution against the Sri Lankan state.
The basis of their gripes is a no-brainer. In 1956, the Sinhalese-dominated government made Sinhala the official language. Tamil passports, degrees, legal judgments and land titles were issued in a language they could not understand. In 1972, the government further marginalized Hindu Tamils by making Buddhism the state religion. That same year, the government introduced legislation that discriminated against Tamil entry to university. In 1983, an orchestrated pogrom killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Tamils, and burned tens of thousands of others out of their homes and businesses. Over the following year, the Tigers grew from a rag-tag team of 50 men into an army of thousands.
For years, few people across the world took much notice of the remote war that followed the pogrom in Sri Lanka. In October, 2001, the United States, concerned about the murky and poorly understood cross-pollination among terrorist organizations, finally began to crack down on Tamil Tiger fundraising activities on U.S. soil. They had not bothered much before, and did not consider them a threat to American interests. But with the global war on terror afoot, it seemed a bit rich to ignore the terrorist problem of one country, while asking them to take the U.S. war seriously.
In May, 2009, through a confluence of good management, foreign assistance and a series of Tiger strategic errors, the insurgents were crushed by the dogged brawn of the army of Sri Lanka. Their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed, and the population they had controlled for almost two decades rounded up. Tiger territory was subsumed once more into the Sri Lankan state. A few months later, a dazed Kumaran Pathmanathan, the kingpin of the Tigers’ global finance operation, was caught. The government and its military leaders boasted that the highly centralized organization was finished. Nobody seriously believes that the Tamil Tigers are a threat any more.
By late 2009, 50 boats had been intercepted by Australian customs. In that bumper year, around 3,500 refugees made the perilous journey, and arrived safely. Even at that rate, the Australian prime minister conceded that it would take 20 years to fill Australia’s largest sports stadium with boat people. Of the Tamils who made it, spurious claims of terrorism, criminality and association with al-Qaeda were levelled, similar to allegations made in Canada.
Guided by its international legal obligations, Australia does not grant refugee status if it believes that a person has committed serious crimes. The vast majority were recognized by Australia as refugees, based on UN Refugee Agency guidelines and the UN Refugee Convention. A handful of arrivals were rejected by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the equivalent of Canada’s CSIS. To date, nobody knows why. It later emerged that ASIO hadn’t bothered to interview those who were rejected, so it seems likely (and odd, under the circumstances) that they largely relied on information provided by the Sri Lankan government. Of course, the defining feature of a refugee is that they have a well-founded reason to fear persecution back home.
Persecuted by whom? By the same people who are trying to dupe Canadians into turning the boats back. Sri Lanka is now one of the most highly militarized societies in Asia – quite a claim to fame if one considers China, Burma and Pakistan. It also features on lists of societies that kill their journalists and humanitarian workers. It manages public dissent and supplements law enforcement with death squads. The UN is currently reviewing 5,749 cases of Sri Lanka’s “disappeared.” The UN has also called for a meaningful inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians perished in the final months of the war. The government says that it did not spill a drop of civilian blood.
Will things improve? We don’t know yet. Fifteen months after the war’s end, and with an electoral victory under his belt, there is no serious effort from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remedy Tamil grievances with a political solution. Although the nastiest of the bloodletting has slowed, Sri Lanka remains a land of low-level repression where men in white vans snatch people curbside. Louise Arbour, now president of the International Crisis Group, says that a fig-leaf government inquiry into accusations that it did spill quite a lot of civilian blood is “bound to fail” because of the government’s long history “of denial and impunity.”
Recently vanquished, and with hundreds of thousands accused of “links” with the Tamil Tiger cause, many Tamils have a well-founded fear of persecution. It is precisely these types of people who reached Australia by boat, whose claims were ultimately vindicated and who are now settling in, grateful for sanctuary. As for whether the families who arrived in Canada this month were products of a smuggling racket or have jumped a queue, the Canadian interest is to keep an open mind, and to resist a vital debate being hijacked by foreign agendas.
Tamils of a different stripe
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tamils-of-a-different-stripe/article1688200/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-National+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+National+News%29
As the debate about Tamil boat people plays out, Canadians might ask themselves, “In whose interest?” Who has muddied the debate with suggestions that the boats are filled with criminals and terrorists, and why? Again, why all the fuss over an insignificant number of people, when Canada does not have a boat-people problem of the magnitude of Australia’s? Government of Sri Lanka warnings that Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.
Canadians are right to be concerned about the security of their borders. Globalized terrorism is a threat to Canadians, as it is to Australians. And national identities are a precious commodity. In an unsteady world, and with a rising backlash in Europe directed at Muslim immigration, both Canadian and Australian governments are obliged to soothe these concerns, with measured immigration and refugee intakes. Both countries need strong border protection policies that deter human smuggling and provide a sense of security to their citizens. Somehow a balance must be struck with our international obligations. That is all the more reason why Canadians must resist letting the debate become confused by wild claims.
Sri Lankan government officials and self-proclaimed experts played the understandable worries of Australians like a fiddle as boats neared their shores. Australians were told that these were economic migrants, taking advantage of their country’s generosity and slack intake laws – in fact, among the toughest in the world. Sri Lankan diplomatic representatives asserted that those on board had terrorist links. Finally, the plainly unfounded claim was made that fully half were terrorists and criminals. Actually, nobody knew who was on board, why they were there or who was behind these voyages.
Let’s be clear: The Tamil Tigers were a menace, and there is reason for sensible precaution. In the 1990s, they set the pace for globalizing terrorist networks. In countries such as Canada, they provided seed money for legitimate businesses, and then skimmed the profits. They packaged arms deals, and maximized their purchases by selling onward to other insurgent and terrorist groups in places like the Horn of Africa. They cleverly exploited that least governed of places, the ocean, purchasing a fleet of a dozen merchant ships with which they collected and delivered those arms. The profits were used to buy more weapons, communications equipment and industrial machinery for their own nascent village-based arms industry. They manufactured rudimentary submarines and attack boats, and converted Czech-made leisure planes into an air force of sorts.
During three decades of insurgency, Tiger operatives using suicidal tactics killed thousands of Sri Lankan civilians, and wreaked havoc on the country’s vital tourism industry. In 2001 they blew up Air Lanka’s entire fleet as it sat on the tarmac in Colombo. The Tigers blew up banks, buses and barracks. They assassinated dozens of key leaders and military officers, killed one president and maimed another, and attacked any Tamil leader who tried to offer alternative moderate paths for Tamil grievances. Millions of ordinary Sri Lankans lived in fear that they might be caught up in the violence. But what of the experts’ suggestion that the Tamil Tigers were linked to al-Qaeda?
As Michael Ignatieff says of the troublesome “terrorist” word, the equally fuzzy “link” word ought to be banned from the fraught boat-people debate. It is a word better suited to tabloids and gossip columns. True, in the late 1970s, a handful of Tamils trained with Palestinian factions in Lebanon. But “links” to al-Qaeda look rather shaky if one considers that every other terrorist group was there at the same time. The IRA was there, and Gerry Adams is not “linked” to al-Qaeda.
Apart from all that, should Canadians consider the Tamil Tigers a threat to their own security today? The answer is no. Aside from the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, their violence was shrewdly confined to Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were a textbook insurgent group that resorted to terrorist tactics. Like the Kurds, Palestinians, Irish Catholics, the Karen of Burma or the Uighurs of China, the Tamils harboured a grievance born of both perceived and actual injustices. The Tigers mobilized those grievances into a broad-based revolution against the Sri Lankan state.
The basis of their gripes is a no-brainer. In 1956, the Sinhalese-dominated government made Sinhala the official language. Tamil passports, degrees, legal judgments and land titles were issued in a language they could not understand. In 1972, the government further marginalized Hindu Tamils by making Buddhism the state religion. That same year, the government introduced legislation that discriminated against Tamil entry to university. In 1983, an orchestrated pogrom killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Tamils, and burned tens of thousands of others out of their homes and businesses. Over the following year, the Tigers grew from a rag-tag team of 50 men into an army of thousands.
For years, few people across the world took much notice of the remote war that followed the pogrom in Sri Lanka. In October, 2001, the United States, concerned about the murky and poorly understood cross-pollination among terrorist organizations, finally began to crack down on Tamil Tiger fundraising activities on U.S. soil. They had not bothered much before, and did not consider them a threat to American interests. But with the global war on terror afoot, it seemed a bit rich to ignore the terrorist problem of one country, while asking them to take the U.S. war seriously.
In May, 2009, through a confluence of good management, foreign assistance and a series of Tiger strategic errors, the insurgents were crushed by the dogged brawn of the army of Sri Lanka. Their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed, and the population they had controlled for almost two decades rounded up. Tiger territory was subsumed once more into the Sri Lankan state. A few months later, a dazed Kumaran Pathmanathan, the kingpin of the Tigers’ global finance operation, was caught. The government and its military leaders boasted that the highly centralized organization was finished. Nobody seriously believes that the Tamil Tigers are a threat any more.
By late 2009, 50 boats had been intercepted by Australian customs. In that bumper year, around 3,500 refugees made the perilous journey, and arrived safely. Even at that rate, the Australian prime minister conceded that it would take 20 years to fill Australia’s largest sports stadium with boat people. Of the Tamils who made it, spurious claims of terrorism, criminality and association with al-Qaeda were levelled, similar to allegations made in Canada.
Guided by its international legal obligations, Australia does not grant refugee status if it believes that a person has committed serious crimes. The vast majority were recognized by Australia as refugees, based on UN Refugee Agency guidelines and the UN Refugee Convention. A handful of arrivals were rejected by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the equivalent of Canada’s CSIS. To date, nobody knows why. It later emerged that ASIO hadn’t bothered to interview those who were rejected, so it seems likely (and odd, under the circumstances) that they largely relied on information provided by the Sri Lankan government. Of course, the defining feature of a refugee is that they have a well-founded reason to fear persecution back home.
Persecuted by whom? By the same people who are trying to dupe Canadians into turning the boats back. Sri Lanka is now one of the most highly militarized societies in Asia – quite a claim to fame if one considers China, Burma and Pakistan. It also features on lists of societies that kill their journalists and humanitarian workers. It manages public dissent and supplements law enforcement with death squads. The UN is currently reviewing 5,749 cases of Sri Lanka’s “disappeared.” The UN has also called for a meaningful inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians perished in the final months of the war. The government says that it did not spill a drop of civilian blood.
Will things improve? We don’t know yet. Fifteen months after the war’s end, and with an electoral victory under his belt, there is no serious effort from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remedy Tamil grievances with a political solution. Although the nastiest of the bloodletting has slowed, Sri Lanka remains a land of low-level repression where men in white vans snatch people curbside. Louise Arbour, now president of the International Crisis Group, says that a fig-leaf government inquiry into accusations that it did spill quite a lot of civilian blood is “bound to fail” because of the government’s long history “of denial and impunity.”
Recently vanquished, and with hundreds of thousands accused of “links” with the Tamil Tiger cause, many Tamils have a well-founded fear of persecution. It is precisely these types of people who reached Australia by boat, whose claims were ultimately vindicated and who are now settling in, grateful for sanctuary. As for whether the families who arrived in Canada this month were products of a smuggling racket or have jumped a queue, the Canadian interest is to keep an open mind, and to resist a vital debate being hijacked by foreign agendas.
Not a single IDP registered (because they do NOT want to vote for the Rajapaksa government!)
Nearly 14,000 IDP families will lose their voting rights in the coming local council elections. Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) claim that not a single IDP has been registered three months after the Department of Elections commenced its 2010 voter registry revision and that 14,184 IDP families will lose their chance to vote in the coming local council elections if immediate action is not taken. After three months the officials have made dismal progress in the North and the East
Ratnasingham Says:
August 30th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Not a single IDP registered (because they do NOT want to vote for the Rajapaksa government!)
Another single stupid statement to be added to the list of "posts of Absurdity" of the Peelam Die Ass Pora !!
I mean, if they do not wish to vote for the Rajapakse regime, they could always vote for another party or they could put forward a representative and vote for that guy. Staying without registering or not voting obviously will not solve any problem for them or let their voices be heard when required.
But, I don't take above as a true statement, specially after knowing that it is coming from a lunatic Baboon !
If at all they have not registered, there could be several logical reasons where the most prominent would be that they have more things to worry about than getting registered or voting – they have to think about rebuilding their lives after their lives and well being were deprived for 30 years. The other is probably they are not interested in politics (I know plenty such cases who are not registered in Colombo) and the last which we cannot rule out – the registrar or the department is taking long to carryout their work.
But, to tell that it's because they do not wish to vote for Rajapakse ??? Reminds me of the dog who's nuts are caught on the barbed wired fence and do not know whether it is sitting or standing – LOL !! Get your brains checked you moron !!
Not a single IDP registered (because they do NOT want to vote for the Rajapaksa government!)
Nearly 14,000 IDP families will lose their voting rights in the coming local council elections. Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) claim that not a single IDP has been registered three months after the Department of Elections commenced its 2010 voter registry revision and that 14,184 IDP families will lose their chance to vote in the coming local council elections if immediate action is not taken. After three months the officials have made dismal progress in the North and the East
Ratnasingham Says:
August 30th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Not a single IDP registered (because they do NOT want to vote for the Rajapaksa government!)
Another single stupid statement to be added to the list of “posts of Absurdity” of the Peelam Die Ass Pora !!
I mean, if they do not wish to vote for the Rajapakse regime, they could always vote for another party or they could put forward a representative and vote for that guy. Staying without registering or not voting obviously will not solve any problem for them or let their voices be heard when required.
But, I don’t take above as a true statement, specially after knowing that it is coming from a lunatic Baboon !
If at all they have not registered, there could be several logical reasons where the most prominent would be that they have more things to worry about than getting registered or voting – they have to think about rebuilding their lives after their lives and well being were deprived for 30 years. The other is probably they are not interested in politics (I know plenty such cases who are not registered in Colombo) and the last which we cannot rule out – the registrar or the department is taking long to carryout their work.
But, to tell that it’s because they do not wish to vote for Rajapakse ??? Reminds me of the dog who’s nuts are caught on the barbed wired fence and do not know whether it is sitting or standing – LOL !! Get your brains checked you moron !!