Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

India offers $100 mln to help Sri Lanka refugees.

A delegation of Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu are likely to visit Sri Lanka later this week. A five-day visit is being planned between October 10 and 14, diplomatic sources said.

Last month, MPs from Tamil Nadu belonging to the DMK and the Congress had urged the Prime Minister to send a delegation to Sri Lanka to see the conditions of the displaced Tamils.

The delegation also said it wanted see the distribution of relief material being sent by India for the Internally Displaced Persons and issues relating to rehabilitation.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) will shortly launch a campaign to collect one million signatures to petition United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki Moon to establish a commission to inquire into human rights violations committed by the United States.

`The United States had violated the human rights of the entire world without challenge from anybody. We should expose the US,` JHU Legal Advisor and Western Province Minister Udaya Gammanpila told a press conference yesterday.

Indo- Lanka Accord will be fully implemented - Indian PM to ENDLF leaders Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) delegation led by ENDLF President G.Gnanasekaran accompanied by R. Anbarasu Ex MP, Ex Secretary Congress Parliamentary Party, met the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the Prime Minister`s Office in New Delhi on yesterday afternoon, S. Vaseekaran, deputy Secretary of the ENDLF said in a press statement.

New York times in an editorial published Wednesday said that `[t]he [Sri Lanka] government`s strict control on visits to the [internment] camps has also raised suspicions that it may be trying to block any investigation into possible government abuses committed in the last months of the war,` and added, `[m]ost [donor countries and international organizations] have kept quiet so far about the Tamils` plight, evidently fearful that criticizing conditions in the camps could get them thrown out of the camps. The time for silence is over. The best way to help the Tamils is by demanding their freedom and an end to their long ordeal.`

Visit of Hilary Clinton to India

TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2009

`We can expect from her positive statements and gestures, but one cannot say definitely how sincerely-meant they would be. Indians have a weakness for flattery and tend to indulge in wishful-thinking.`

By B.Raman

(July 14, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The following is the reply sent by me to an E-mail question from a journalist asking for my reaction to the forthcoming visit of Mrs.Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, to New Delhi for talks with the Indian leaders:

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Thursday Sri Lanka assured India that it would soon start an inclusive political process of dialogue and devolution with Tamils in the island nation. He said India would continue to help Sri Lanka in the rehabilitation of people displaced by war.

In a suo motu statement in Parliament, Mr. Krishna said, We have been assured by the Sri Lankan government of its intention to pursue a political process that envisages a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil parties, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and to go beyond, so as to achieve meaningful devolution of powers.

Mon Jul 6, 2009 3:02am EDT

COLOMBO, July 6 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won a 25-year war with Tamil Tigers long viewed as unwinnable, said a political solution to the problems that helped fan the conflict must wait for presidential elections.

The president, who had strong backing for his tough military approach from hard-line members of his ruling coalition, will have a tougher time getting them on board with a political solution if it involves significant concessions to the country`s Tamil and other minorities, political analysts say.

Katchatheevu is a wasteland of an island on the Sri Lankan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line but political parties in Tamil Nadu have made it the focus of a surrogate campaign for establishing fishing rights for Indian fishermen. The IMBL was amicably settled through two agreements between India and Sri Lanka. It was demarcated in the Palk Strait in 1974 and in the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal in 1976. As part of the settlement, Indian fishermen and pilgrims were allowed access to Katchatheevu as hitherto, and were not required by Sri Lanka to have travel documents or visas. Fishermen were thus free to visit the island for rest, for drying their nets, and for the annual St. Anthony`s festival. But fishing rights around the island were not specifically covered by the Palk Strait agreement. However, for Indian fishermen, the real issue is not fishing around Katchatheevu, where the catch has been dwindling as in Indian waters, but fishing well into Sri Lanka`s waters, which are known to be much richer in marine resources. But returns from such off-limits venturing came with a cost: the fishermen were shot at, sometimes by the Sri Lankan Navy, at other times by the Sea Tigers. These incidents were exploited to inflame political passions in Tamil Nadu. Thus, while both India and Sri Lanka consider Katchatheevu a settled issue, regional parties in Tamil Nadu have fallen into the habit of demanding, from time to time, `retrieval` of the island. Indian fishermen admit that their problems have little to do with Katchatheevu. What they are really after is an unrestricted right to fish in Sri Lankan waters. There is no question of a sovereign nation like Sri Lanka conceding such a right or, for that matter, the Indian government asking for it.

Sri Lanka`s social services and social welfare minister and leader of EPDP Douglas Devananda was involved in a shooting incident in Chennai in 1986 which claimed a person`s life. At the time Devananda was heading the People`s Liberation Army (PLA), the EPRLF military wing. Operating from Jaffna, he arrived in Chennai in early 1986 to sort out organisational issues with colleagues then based in Tamil Nadu.

Colombo (PTI) Sri Lankan troops have so far recovered over 1.5 million landmines from the region captured from the LTTE and have expedited the process of demining the areas to facilitate the early resettlement of displaced civilians in the northern region.

The army has launched massive searches to recover the weapons of LTTE, especially claymore mines and other destructive explosives, in the northern areas.

By Mike Cowie

`Terrorism doesn`t just blow up buildings it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.`
Naomi Klein

`If you listen to the politicians, you might think we are all terrorists.`
Loesje (international originally Dutch free speech organization)

`Our position is clear and frank...We consider the military occupation of our land a terrorist act.`

Velupillai Pirapaharan was an exceptional man. He had to be. To dominate a country and set its agenda for two and a half decades is no mean task. True he got lots of help from an unimaginative and weak leadership of the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

Yet to establish the pre eminent terror organisation in the world is no mean task. To do that Pirapaharan had the right ingredients, single minded commitment, the ruthlessness and the ability to inspire others. But most important was his absolute conviction that his way was the only way to win the rights of his people, and his way to use terror against all opponents the Sinhala state, the

They failed miserably. That`s the fact. Tamils have to accept the defeat of LTTE and move on.

New Delhi (PTI): Ahead of their departure for Colombo, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and discussed with him issues that will come up during talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The two met Mr. Karunanidhi at Tamil Nadu house after which Mr. Narayanan said he came to seek his advice on issues.