Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The Singapore-based terrorism expert who asserts Tamil terrorists were aboard a ship that brought 76 Sri Lankan migrants to Canada will be called to explain his allegations under cross-examination.
Rohan Gunaratna, who heads a terrorism think tank at Nanyang University in Singapore, has been the chief adviser to federal investigators trying to determine the identities of the migrant men, who arrived off Canada`s West Coast in a decrepit cargo ship on October 17.

The Srilankan flag, the state and its Mahavamsa ideological role in promoting RACISM, HATRED, and GENOCIDAL ACTS against TAMILS

` If you are of the opinion that the Sri Lankan flag and the state glorify Racism Hatred and genocidal acts , then please explore legal prospects of banning the state and the flag under racism and hatred law in UK and other relevant countries.`

Please see the link:
http://site.ofapsuk.com/Home.html

The ethnic problem was largely due to the Tamil people feeling alienated particularly over the language issue and lack of equal access to the public service. It has become an urgent need to implement the language policy, says Chairman of the Official Languages Commission Raja Collure.

The Sinhala government did not magnanimously include Tamil as an official language of Sri Lanka in the constitution. But the Tamils of Sri Lanka spilled their blood for that to happen. The Sri Lankan Tamils are proud of their proper Tamil language usage and they have produced more than their share of Tamil scholars. The Eelam Tamils have been in the forefront of the protection of Tamil language and culture. Now the Sinhala government is corrupting the Tamil language on government websites, name boards and publications etc with unnecessary Sinhala words.

`Canada is a country with laws and there has to be a due process`. Sinhala White Van Justice system does not exist in Canada. The Sinhalese have a hard time understanding this fact.

Canadian Tamil Congress organised a press meeting for the Tamil media, with regards to the 76 Tamils who arrived on `Ocean Lady` Ship at Vancouver. Following is the speech delivered by Mr. LORNE WALDMAN, a LEADING IMMIGRATION LAWYER from Toronto.

There have been several questions that I have been asked. First of all, it`s been said and indeed there was an RCMP officer who stated that they were checking people with the Sri Lanka authorities. I have been asked whether it is illegal?

Predictably, Washington lobbyists are making out quite well from the war. In January, the firm of Patton Boggs was retained by the Embassy of Sri Lanka, with a fixed fee of $35,000 per month, payable quarterly in advance, according to the contract. Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs is helping run the account, which calls on Patton Boggs to provide guidance and counsel to the Embassy of Sri Lanka regarding its relations with the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government. In other words, to sanitize the government`s conduct of the war and make it look good with the Obama administration.

-JUSTICE BEFORE RECONCILIATION-

On October 25, 2000, twenty-six persons (twenty-nine by some estimates), were chopped to death, while about fourteen others were seriously injured, in a rehabilitation detention centre at Bindunuwewa, Badulla, Sri Lanka. According to the National Human Rights Commission, which inquired into the incident, `the police officers, approximately 60 in number, were present at the place of massacre at the time of the massacre` and they `were fully armed`. At least two of the detainees were shot by the police while trying to escape their attackers. Clearly these officers were participants in the massacre and have committed an even graver crime than the actual perpetrators. The armed police presence encouraged and enabled the attackers to engage in the massacre they were assured that their crimes would have no legal consequences.

The Sinhala `Perehera` on the streets of Jaffna is a slap on the face of Tamils. This procession is nothing but a sheer provocation. Sinhalese are using the Buddha for the purpose of hate mongering. The Sinhala Buddhist chauvinistic state is using the Buddha to humiliate the Tamils who lost the war.

The occupying Nazi forces did the similar, German cultural festivals and parades on the streets of Paris to humiliate the French people and to show the German Dominance over the French people in their beloved capital and the heartland of French history and tradition. The Sinhalese are doing the exact same thing in Jaffna - the Heartland of Eelam Tamils.

`I hope we will have sense to deliver a political solution, because without the political solution, we will continuously face tensions. And it will be very discriminatory towards minority community, mainly the Tamils and the Muslims of this country. For people to begin to think that this country belongs to them, the Tamil people Sinhala and the Muslim people to be united to create a new governance in Sri Lanka. Its time WE END THIS DEPENDENCY ON INDIA, CHINA and PAKISTAN.

The Australian government has identified Sri Lanka`s west coast, a series of LARGELY SINHALESE CATHOLIC FISHING VILLAGES and the most popular jumping-off point for illegal boats, as the first target in their campaign. So prevalent is illegal immigration from that area that whole pockets of one village are known as LITTLE ITALY in honour of the Italianate villas financed with money sent back by LOCALS WHO HAVE WASHED UP ON EUROPE`S SHORES.

The Buddha preached non-violence not only in regard to living things but also in regard to non- living things like trees and forests, but what do we see today in practice?

Today the very Buddha`s statue has become the symbol of Sinhalese hegemony and anti Tamil racism. The Buddha`s statues and stupas are being built and planted in Tamil Homeland to grab the land! This is the stark reality, and Tamils have no other choice but to face this menace squarely.

In the past Buddhist temples and statues have been erected in villages predominantly occupied by Hindu Thamils. Thiriyai, Velgamvihara and Seruvila are good examples. Ruins of Buddhist viharas were rebuilt and/or renovated followed by moving Sinhalese colonists to occupy such villages. Such Buddhist ruins belonged to Thamil Buddhists and not Sinhalese Buddhists. It is a well known fact that from the 3rd century BC to 13th century AD a large percentage of Thamils professed Buddhism.

THE SHIP NOBODY WANTED

Darkness overtook the SS St. Louis as it approached the Florida coastline on June 3, 1939. The lights of Miami winked in the distance a beacon of hope to more than 900 Jewish refugees aboard the German luxury liner.

The Jews, who had sailed across the Atlantic to escape growing persecution in Nazi Germany, were close enough to see hotels and automobiles along the beach. Peering through binoculars, 12-year-old Herbert Karliner could not take his eyes off the shoreline. `I`d never seen coconut trees in my life. I was very impressed,` Karliner says.

The Indians who helped Mahinda to herd all these Tamils to the Sinhala concentration camps are celebrating Diwali with new clothes while three hundred thousand of Tamils who are confined into concentration camps in Vavuniya look for ways to change the ones that they have been wearing for months.

[Military sources say the President has stopped consuming meat to fulfill a vow undertaken by him to invoke the blessings of God to overcome any ill effects. However, it has also been reported that the vow has excluded the consumption of liquor.

Of late, however, there is something odd going on in this island of ours. `We don`t want it, but we want it.` `We don`t need your preaching, but give us the moolah,` we have been telling the West. Ditto with the IMF: `No conditions please we are Sri Lanka, so just dole out the 2.5 billion.` To the US: `Put your house in order before lecturing us.` And then we go and ask these very people for favours. How intelligent is that?

Just a couple of weeks ago we had a chorus led by the likes of Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal stating to anyone willing to lend an ear that Sri Lanka can do jolly well without the EU`s GSP+ concession, which in any event was to be a temporary measure, granted following the 2004 tsunami. We can do without it.

Hambantota, the main city of Hambantota District is located near the 148th mile (238-km) post along the Colombo-Galle-Matara-Tissamaharama highway.

Legend has it the archaic name of Hambantota appears to have been Sampanthurai. This word Sampan is said to have been derived from the Malay word meaning navigators, as the MALAYS, in the olden days were sea-farers who had come in their sailing vessels for barter trade. The word `Thurai` means a port - a Tamil derivation.

Another version, In the legends, `Hamban` is popularly known as an ethnic group called `Malay` or `Muslims` and `thota` means where those groups were landed. The sleepy fishing village of Hambantota (this is the Sinhalese rendition of the Malay words Sampan kota Harbour of small boats the name came from groups of Malays who settled here), a good six hours drive from Colombo. This type of sailing craft was commonly used for ocean navigation. It was quite popular among the Chinese, Malays and Moors who inhabited the Asian region.

STATE- SPONSORED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN SRI LANKA.

An analysis of cases of rape by armed forces personnel reported in the Sri Lankan press for the year 1998 for example, revealed that 37 such cases were recorded. As of 1999, eight of these cases were still under police investigation, 22 were being inquired into by Magistrate`s Courts, two cases were before the District Court and an additional two cases were pending before the High Court. During the year 1998, three of the rape cases that were heard before the Sri Lankan courts resulted in prison sentences for the armed services personnel involved. Eighteen of the cases heard before the Courts related to crimes of sexual violence committed in the operational areas of the North-East while the remaining 19 cases were reported in other areas of the country. (1)