Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

B. Muralidhar Reddy - The Hindu
COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Government, due to the prevailing security situation, has reportedly blocked communication facilities to Jaffna peninsula. As a result, Internet is down and most of the phones are not functioning

http://www.sibernews.com/news/sri-lanka/-200701307431/

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Army strengthening forces
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Sri Lanka military is now on a major drive to strengthen the forces to maintain security in the territories newly captured from the Tamil Tigers.
The Army commenced a major recruitment drive today at Army camps all throughout the island with the hope of enlisting 2000 soldiers.

Qualified young persons can directly enroll for the training.

Meanwhile the Army has offered a general amnesty for the deserters from 31st of January.

The deserters have been notified to surrender to any Army camp and they will not be subjected to any disciplinary action and the salaries will be paid from the day they surrender.

Dalit coolie...go clean a washroom! You ain't match for me not only in economics and international business, but in basic common sense too!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6291009.stm

Tamil diaspora 'feel' the violence
By Debabani Majumdar
BBC News, London

Mr Thevaraja's wife and children live in eastern Sri Lanka

Thangaraja Thevaraja is sitting in his east London home wondering when he will next hear from his wife and three children in Sri Lanka.



The 44-year-old fled to the UK in 2001 after being arrested by police on suspicion of supporting the rebels.

They are fighting for a separate homeland for the country's 3.1m-strong Tamil population following decades of alleged discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

But instead of things improving he had to watch from thousands of miles away as his home village Kallar, in Batticaloa, was wiped out by the tsunami in 2004, forcing his family to live in a temporary shelter ever since.

He has since learned that his nephew was abducted, and days later found dead, and that his 14-year-old son is now too scared to go to school.

Human rights groups have frequently criticised both rebels and government troops of carrying out abductions.

His is one of about 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living in London alone - with 5,000 settled in Newham, east London.

Many have similar stories to tell, but do not want to be named, fearing for their families' safety in Sri Lanka.

An estimated 65,000 people have died in Sri Lanka's civil war and the 2002 ceasefire between the government and the Tigers now seems to exist only on paper. More than 3,600 were killed last year and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced during the recent violence.

Paul Sathianesan, a councillor in Newham since 1998, said he came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 1985 from the Jaffna peninsula to escape the violence.

He visited Jaffna in 2003 planning to help the local community, but was shattered to see the devastation caused by the conflict.

'My father's house was in ruins, the roof and windows were falling off and I couldn't find any of my friends.

'There was an air of emptiness and people looked grey, thin and scared.'

The expatriate community over the years has tried to invest in their former villages and cities but this has become very difficult.

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The expatriate community over the years has tried to invest in their former villages and cities but this has become very difficult.

Mr Vellupillai Bose, who owns an estate agency in East Ham, said he and 10 friends purchased land in the capital Colombo to build residential buildings but they had to abandon the project after the violence worsened soon after presidential elections in November 2005.
'All clauses were finalised but things got worse after the elections. Now we have decided to sell the land. We can't do business in this situation.'

He has taken his family to Colombo for vacations but he has not been able to visit Jaffna, his hometown, since 1998.



The community, which has been dealing with the news of mounting violence in Sri Lanka, have been confronted with a new challenge closer home.

Tamil gangs

Since 2000 at least 10 people have been killed in gang-related incidents spurring the Metropolitan Police to set up a special task force, Enver, to tackle Tamil gangs and crime.

Mr Sathianesan recently held a public consultation - where police, youth and other local agencies were invited - to talk about an issue which was 'damaging race relations and the image of the community'.

He hopes they will overcome the hurdle.

'The next generation shouldn't be given hatred as heritage, we want to see them enjoy love, peace and safety.'

http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=64&id=4754

Rock fights 'smear' tactics

Rock said the picture is now being used 'for propaganda purposes' in an effort to divert attention from his findings, among them a discovery that government forces were helping a breakaway faction called Karuna -- which fights the Tamil Tigers -- abduct children and train them to fight.

According to SL definition, Rock is a Tamil terrorist?

Don't be jealous. After the 2nd world war, Japan was eating Tree barks. but, they came fast.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a disabled civilian at Rajakiramam, Karaveddy in Vadamarachchy region in Jaffna