Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

http://www.groundviews.org/2008/03/30/from-akkaraipattu/

Rohitha Rajapakse, the captain of S. Thomas College and the youngest son of President Mahinda Rajapakse receives the Plate Championship from Dr. Punyadasa Kuruppu, President of Schools Rugby Association. Pix by Nishan S. Priyantha.

http://lankaguardian.blogsp0t.com/2008/03/ltte-urges-un-to-update-their-database.html

The German decision putting Aid on hold.

The German Federal Minister for Economic
Cooperation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, in a recent interview, indicated that Germany plans to withdraw half of the personnel working in development cooperation and close the office of the German Development Bank in Colombo, if the government continues to pursue the war option.

Germany is also considering proposing to the European Union to withdraw the General System of Preference Plus
(GSP+) concessions from Sri Lanka and the slashing of development cooperation unless the government stops the war and seeks a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

International Left-wing groups
In early March 2006, more than 30 international
left-wing political parties and organizations met in Amsterdam appealing for progressive forces to come forward on the defense of the just cause of the Tamil people. They demanded that the Government of Sri Lanka stop imposing its will militarily on the Tamil people.

Delegates pledged to lobby governments in their respective countries to call on the GOSL to restore the Ceasefire
and stop the killing of civilians.

Although one can dismiss these groups as marginal
groups with little power, this might be entirely wrong. Many of these groups have access to crucial Trade Unions which have the power to impose a ban on the handling of goods to and from Sri Lanka. This will bring the GOSL to its senses in a very short time.

International action
International action is urgent. If action is
taken, it is certainly powerful enough to end this conflict in weeks.
An international observer group must be sent to
Sri Lanka urgently to monitor the plight of civilians especially in the war-ravaged area.
The suffering of the Tamil and Muslim civilian in
the North and East has been under-reported because of media censorship and the exclusion of independent reporters fro the conflict zone. In an attempt to show what the GOSL is trying to conceal, I have recently released five information DVDs. These must be widely circulated to show the world the gravity of the situation.
Public protests will almost certainly follow.

Human Rights activists, including Church groups,
and civic society outside Sri Lanka, will have to act. There are Sinhalese peace activists in Sri Lanka, who strongly oppose this war and the attempt by the GOSL to crush the Tamil people.. They must be supported.

Sri Lanka is a cricket-mad country. For cricketers to refuse to play in that country until the human rights
situation improves will send a powerful message, as it did with apartheid South Africa. Amnesty International had similar ideas when it distributed cricket balls to spectators at an international venue at which Sri Lanka was playing, with a printed message drawing
attention to the abysmal human rights record.

Trade Unions, in particular those handling
shipping in and out of Sri Lanka, have a crucial part to play. A refusal to handle shipments to of from Sri Lanka will send a powerful message, more powerful than any diplomatic pressure.

Massive diplomatic pressure can, and must, be
exerted to abandon this pursuit of a military solution as not being feasible or acceptable in view of the civilian casualties. There has to be a return to the negotiating table. To make this feasible, the ban on the LTTE as a terrorist organization will have to be lifted.

The U.S. and EU could consider withdrawing the
country from the General System of Preferences, which applies reduced taxes and levies to certain Sri Lankan exports, such as tea and textiles. This will send the necessary message to the GOSL that its current pursuit of a military solution to a political problem is unacceptable. It will also reduce its capacity to wage war.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must back the Head of his Human Rights Council and insist that a UN human
rights monitoring presence be established in the country. For the GOSL to refuse this is unacceptable.

The UN Security Council has recently dispatched a
Special Envoy to Sri Lanka to report on the ground situation. There must be consideration given to what political and economic sanctions can be brought to bear to restart negotiations. If these steps are not taken urgently, the world will be watching the genocide of the
Tamil people, the economic decimation of the country, the emergence of a failed Sate and the establishment of a fascist dictatorship which would have disastrous consequences for all the people of that country.

http://www.news.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5402&Itemid=44

Isipatana College, Colombo, defended the Western Province Rugby 7s title by eliminating St. Joseph s College, Colombo, in the Cup final in the Under-20 Ole Seven a Side tournament conducted by the Western Province Rugby Football Association played at CR & FC grounds, on Sunday.
In the one sided final, Isipatana College scored 21 points (3 goals) and conceded nothing with lanky Sajith Saranga, S. Suriyabandara and captain Dinusha Chathuranga all scoring a try an each.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=ajx0CXhrh7hg&refer=india

Grammy award winning singer and songwriter Madonna is to visit Sri Lanka next month for a peace concert and is also likely to visit the Wanni for what has been billed as a first of its kind meeting between the top international singer and the LTTE, organizers said.