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Call for Christmas ceasefire Tuesday, 19 December 2006 - 8:42 AM SL Time The National Anti War Front yesterday called on the Government and the LTTE to maintain a ceasefire during the festive season. `We appeal to the two parties to recognize the immense human sufferings the people are facing as a result of the current hostilities. It has been customary for both parties to respect the festive season and refrain from hostilities, so that an opportunity is given to the people to celebrate festivals in tranquility,` NAWF said in a statement. It also called on all peace loving people including political parties, trade unions, professional, civil society and religious organizations to demand a political solution to the conflict. `It is our view that extremist forces are planning to disrupt and sabotage the President`s initiative in forming the expert committee to provide a just solution to the national question,` it said. 
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Flush us out at your peril, Sri Lanka rebels warn army Monday, 18 December 2006 - 6:00 PM SL Time Sri Lanka`s Tamil Tigers warned the army on Monday they would resort to pre-emptive strikes if the military pushes ahead with a declared plan to drive them out of rebel-held territory in the island`s volatile east. The military says more than 17,000 war-displaced have fled camps in and around the Tiger-held town of Vakarai in the district of Batticaloa, some through jungle and others by sea, since early November to escape artillery duels. The army accuses the Tigers of using civilians as human shields and, to the shock of Nordic truce monitors, has vowed to push them out of areas they control under the terms of a tattered 2002 ceasefire pact which still holds on paper. The rebels say the civilians are fleeing because of army artillery shells that have hit refugee camps and killed dozens. They deny they have held civilians against their will as some witnesses have said.
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Jaffna security arrangements add to Islets residents woes Monday, 18 December 2006 - 9:54 AM SL Time Recent relocation of Jaffna bus terminal to Pannai by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and overflow of traffic along outer peripheral roads due to reconfiguration of traffic flow including prohibition of parking, have created additional burdens to families from the islets entering and leaving Jaffna town, civil society leaders said. Restrictions of intra-islet travel, and of transport in interior land routes have added further hardships for the people in these areas. More than 50,000 civilians from 14192 families reside in the main population centers in the islands of Kayts, Karainagar, Velanai, according to a report from the welfare centers in the islets. The statistics include: Velanai - 17460 people of 4709 families, Kayts ? 15147 people of 4388 families, and Karainagar ? 10687 people of 3381 families.
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Security Forum
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Illegal abortions hit nearly a thousand per day Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:52 AM SL Time Between 750 and 1,000 abortions are being illegally performed per day in Sri Lanka, an extensive survey conducted by Health Authorities reveal. Family Health Bureau sources told The Island that there had been a tremendous deterioration in birth control and family planning programmes in Sri Lanka. In the year 2000 242 men had opted to undergo vasectomy (male sterilisation) surgery, but in 2005 the figure had dropped to 78 while 15,499 women had had opted to undergo Tubectomy (female sterilization)in 2000 as against 7,642 in 2005. Under the existing medical law abortions are permitted only in life-threatening situations of mothers. Criminal abortions had taken a dramatic turn as a large number of women and men had not paid heed to the birth control and family planning methods and Health authorities were of the view that most families wished to have more than the two babies recommended. Illegal abortions had become a lucrative practice for Government and private medical practitioners, the sources said.
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Estate unions,companies enjoy tea with President Rajapaksa Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:50 AM SL Time A majority of estate unions struck a deal with the employers yesterday in the presence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa while the JVP-led All Ceylon Estate Workers` Union was up in arms insisting on a higher wage. The new package includes basic salary of Rs 170, guaranteed price share supplement of Rs 20 and an attendance incentive of Rs 70. The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the Up Country People`s Front (UPF) and the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union called off their strike after agreeing to the new package while the JVP-led All Ceylon Estate Workers Union, the National Union of Workers and the Sri Lanka United Workers Front decided to continue their action insisting on a wage hike exceeding Rs 300.
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Top world academics condemn kidnapping of Vice Chancellor Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:50 AM SL Time A group of 67 eminent academics from all parts of the world yesterday expressed deep concern over the abduction of Eastern University Vice Chancellor S. Ravindranath on December 15. The academics in a statement called for the swift and safe release of Prof. Ravindranath and the protection and safety of their colleagues in Sri Lanka. The academics said: `We wish to express our deep concern about the apparent abduction of Prof Ravindranath,. On Friday 15th December, he left a meeting of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in central Colombo, and has not been seen since. His family has reported his disappearance to the police. `In September an unidentified armed group kidnapped the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Eastern University, demanding Prof. Ravindranath`s resignation in return for the Dean`s release. The Vice-Chancellor has not been able to return to the University since that incident and had been carrying out his duties from Colombo. `Our colleagues in universities across Sri Lanka have struggled heroically in the face of war and natural disaster in recent years. Eastern University is located in one of the areas most devastated by the civil war and by the Tsunami of 2004. That it is still capable of producing world-class researchers is testimony to the quality and dedication of its academic staff. Prof. Ravindranath has played a central part in the work of the university from its foundation in 1981, and his tenure as Vice-Chancellor has coincided with major developments like the opening of the first medical school in the East of Sri Lanka.
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| Politics
Political News Forum
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Bala`s funeral today Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:45 AM SL Time The funeral of LTTE theoretician and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham will take place at Alaxandra Palace in London today with Norwegian minister Erik Solheim and top LTTE officials likely to attend. Mr. Balasingham died of cancer at his London residence last Thursday. A three-day mourning period for Mr. Balasingham was observed in the LTTE-controlled Kilinochchi area while pro-LTTE groups in Jaffna have called on shops and offices close today as a mark of respect.
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Australia considers ban on Sri Lanka`s LTTE Tuesday, 19 December 2006 - 8:51 AM SL Time `We are seriously considering banning the LTTE,` stated Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, addressing a gathering on terrorism and Islamic extremism at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. The Australian Foreign Minister, who was in London to attend a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), said Australian intelligence services had monitored the activities of some Tamil charities that had used the cover to illegally raise funds for the LTTE in Sri Lanka. `In the past two weeks Australian authorities have had discussions concerning the LTTE and a decision was expected to be taken shortly,` he added. Australian diplomatic sources revealed that the recent increase in terrorist activities in Sri Lanka, such as the attempted assassination of the Defence Secretary, is among the factors that lead the Australian authorities to seriously consider hard hitting measures against the LTTE.
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Jaffna Church trusts Govt Monday, 18 December 2006 - 10:06 AM SL Time The Church in Jaffna appreciates President Mahinda Rajapaksa`s decision to dispatch basic humanitarian aid via the A9 Road, closed since August following violence between the army and the LTTE. In a letter sent to President Rajapaksa, Jaffna Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam, thanked the Government for its decision to temporarily resume aid delivery to the peninsula cut off from all land routes after the closure of the A9. The Bishop, who has requested President Rajapaksa to send urgent aid to Jaffna, is convinced that `Colombo`s proposal is not a mere propaganda ploy to satisfy the big donors but a humble and good gesture on the part of the Government to build trust and confidence with the Tamil people. We see it as a genuine desire of the Government to attend to the needs of the people.`
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Business News Forum
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Grade 5 Scholarship examination results today Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:49 AM SL Time The results of the Grade 5 scholarship examination will be released today. More than 300,000 students sat the exam which was held in August. However, the exam was not conducted on the scheduled date in a few centres in the northern and eastern provinces due to the volatile security situation. The department held the exam for those students on a later date, though some students in Vakarai and Kadiraweli were unable to sit the exam on the new date as well. Separate arrangements were made for these students to sit the exam last Sunday but they failed to turn up on that day too. Therefore the Examinations Department said it was compelled to issue the results without taking those students into consideration. The results will be posted on the internet only after releasing them to schools.
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Sri Lanka`s neglected clock towers to get a facelift Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:42 AM SL Time Sri Lanka`s provincial councils are trying to attract private sector help to give over a hundred neglected clock towers a much needed tune up. The ministry of provincial councils said they were looking for private assistance to renovate and maintain the clock towers, in a public notice on Tuesday. `In an effort to beautify the cities the government has initiated a project to award the maintenance of clock towers to private sector parties, government and non governmental organizations,` the notice said. Successful bidders could use the towers to for commercial activities such as for advertising space, on condition the towers are maintained and the clocks are kept running. Officials say there have already been huge interest and many offers to maintain the towers.
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Ring tones remain dead in Jaffna mobile phones Tuesday, 19 December 2006 - 8:48 AM SL Time Officials of Dialog GSM and Mobitel, the two mobile telephone companies providing cellular telephone service in Jaffna Peninsula, denied widespread rumors Monday that the wireless service, disconnected in August, are to be restored soon, sources from Jaffna said. More than 40,000 people who had mobile telephone facilities lost the facilities when the Sri Lankan Military cut-off the wireless services following the break out of fresh violence on 11 August. Dialog GSM, which owns 90 % of the connections and Mobitel, a collaborative company of Sri Lankan Telecom, have their main relay station to the Peninsula in the Palaly Military Base. Sri Lanka Military consulted neither the wireless carriers nor the customers before suspending the services, according to sources.
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| Editorial News
Editorial News Forum
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Educating the underprivileged Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:53 AM SL Time Minister of Education Susil Premjayanth has put his finger on what ails the country`s education system. The biggest problem that the education sector is faced with is the absence of proper management, he has told a workshop for the provincial education officials in Kandy recently. Mr. Premjayanth has pointed out that in terms of the teacher-student ratio, Sri Lanka is ahead of even some of the developed countries. However, rural areas experience a dearth of teachers, he says, due to the over-concentration of teachers in the urban areas. In the rural backwaters, the Minister may also have observed, paradoxically, many schools experience a dearth of students and this has caused many schools to be closed. Some schools, according to media reports, have more teachers than students! This is due to the so-called `popular schools` attracting students and teachers from their underprivileged counterparts, apart from other factors such as rapid urbanisation and the expansion of public and private transport, which has facilitated the mobility of the rural population. The small schools have come to be left with the progeny of the poorest of the poor and the teachers without the right political connections to obtain transfers to urban areas. Thus, the rural schools are caught in the vicious cycle of the `exit phenomenon`: More and more students are leaving the neglected schools thus causing further neglect thereof, as those who remain are voiceless.
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Musings on April Queen Tuesday, 19 December 2006 - 8:46 AM SL Time Ex-President Chan-drika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is reported to have said at an SLFP meeting at Attanagalle recently that she will return to power in April. (A wag says April 01 will be the ideal day for her coronation!) She has let the cat out of the bag. That she was flirting with the idea of making a comeback after retirement was on the grapevine. Immediately after she had to leave office, one year earlier than she expected, due to a constitutional Duckworth-Lewis, she tried her best to prevent the SLFP Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse from winning. She colluded with the UNP and it was rumoured that she was planning to re-enter Parliament on the National List either as Prime Minister or the Opposition Leader under a UNP president. If that was her plan, then it went awry with the victory of her bete noire Rajapakse.
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Death comes as the end Saturday, 16 December 2006 - 6:36 AM SL Time One of the pillars of the LTTE has fallen with the demise of its ideologue Anton Balasingham. He managed to give the LTTE`s macabre ideology a semblance of sophistication and over the years became a seasoned negotiator for the movement. Mr. Balasingham may have genuinely believed in the cause of his choice like all others who advocate violence as the means to an end. Unfortunately, those who choose that path of brutality fail to realise that violence becomes, with the passage of time, the end and the means both and the perpetrators end up being prisoners of it. The survival of any movement that resorts to terror, hinges on its ability to unleash more and more violence. the LTTE being a classic example.
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Sports News Forum
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We could have done better - Mahela Wednesday, 20 December 2006 - 7:52 AM SL Time Despite a thrilling win in the second Test Match against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington to square the Test series 1-1, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said that this team could achieve greater things. Like in England early this year, the Sri Lankans came from behind to square the series. Paceman Lasith Malinga was bowling so well that the tourists admitted that he was very difficult to pick up and at times impossible. The stranglehold the bowler had on the opposition was so much that if there had been a third Test, New Zealand`s batsman would have hated facing Malinga again. `The biggest challenge we had was to perform away form home this year as we had lot of games away from home. In Sri Lanka we do really well and then we set goals to succeed outside and I am glad we won two Tests in New Zealand and in England,` Jayawardene said.
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Sri Lanka level series Tuesday, 19 December 2006 - 8:46 AM SL Time Sri Lanka fought off a resilient fightback from the New Zealand tail to level the two match Test series with New Zealand after recording a 217 run victory on the fourth day at the Basin Reserve. The home side were chasing 504 to win to secure a 2-0 series whitewash but were reduced to 174 for seven at lunch on the fourth day as spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan ripped through the New Zealand batting order. All-rounder Daniel Vettori hit a defiant half century before failing to Muralitharan after lunch as the home side were dismissed for 286. Vettori had became the second highest New Zealand wicket taker after Richard Hadlee with 228 victims after returned figures of seven for 130 in Sri Lanka`s second innings as the tourists were dismissed for 365.
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Sangakkara smashes ton as wickets tumble Saturday, 16 December 2006 - 6:36 AM SL Time A swashbuckling century from Kumar Sangakkara lifted Sri Lanka to 268 all out before New Zealand slumped to 66 for four as wickets tumbled on the opening day of the second test in Wellington on Friday. Sangakkara finished unbeaten on 156, his 12th test century and second of the series, helping the touring side recover from 41 for three before their last five batsmen fell for 29 runs to hand the advantage back to New Zealand. The hosts then lost four quick wickets before the close on a seaming pitch to give Sri Lanka hope of squaring the series. Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and chose to bat but seamer Chris Martin took three wickets in a terrific opening spell to reduce the tourists to 41 for three. The 29-year-old Sangakkara continued his rich vein of form, however, and received good support from Chamara Silva who made 61 in only his second test.
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