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Wikileaks : Aftermath of the Conflict
Friday, 2 September 2011 - 11:13 PM SL Time
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PTER EAID MOPS CE
SUBJECT: Sri Lanka Scenesetter
1. (SBU) Sri Lanka stands at a pivotal point in its modern history. The end of the long secessionist war with the LTTE opens up opportunities for national reconciliation, political reform, economic renewal, and international re-engagement. The question is whether the Sri Lankan leadership has the vision, determination, and courage to seize the opportunity. The Sri Lankans value their realtions with the United States. Our challenge is strongly to encourage the Sri Lankan government to embrace reconciliation, accountability, and respect for human rights, while trying not to push the country towards Burma-like isolation from the West.
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Wikileaks : SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE (SFRC) FACT FINDING MISSION TO SRI LANKA
Saturday, 3 September 2011 - 2:45 PM SL Time
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SUBJECT: SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE (SFRC) FACT FINDING MISSION TO SRI LANKA
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On November 2-8, Senate Foreign Relations staff members Nilmini Rubin and Fatema Sumar visited Sri Lanka and held meetings with senior government officials, international organizations, political leaders, civil-society activists, and journalists to discuss post war reconciliation, resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the humanitarian situation, and media freedom. They also visited the South, East and IDP camp at Manik Farm. The StaffDel observed that the post-war situation in Sri Lanka was complex, particularly in light of possible elections Sri Lankans no longer sensed a strong partnership with the U.S. the U.S. `tool box` in dealing with the government of Sri Lanka (GSL) was self-limited a sense of palpable fear still hung over the media and civil society and while the GSL was making progress and doing some good things, SL had a long way to go on reconciliation and resettlement. Recognizing SL`s geo-strategic importance to the U.S. and the current and long-term bilateral relationship, many SL interlocutors gave their recommendations on strengthening the relationship and noted a need for more U.S. assistance for resettlement and demining. END SUMMARY.
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Wikileaks : Towards a Rajapakse Era..
Sunday, 4 September 2011 - 8:30 PM SL Time
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SUBJECT: SRI LANKA FREEDOM PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: BACK TO ITS ROOTS
Classified By: CDA James F. Entwistle. Reason: 1.4 (b, d).
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SUMMARY
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1. (C) With his electoral pacts with the Marxist/nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Buddhist nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse appears to be trying to steer his party away from the political center favored by incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga and back to its rural Sinhalese nationalist roots. This apparent policy shift is starkest in Rajapakse`s approach to the peace process, reflected in the pacts` insistence on a `unitary` state and rejection of devolution of power as an element of a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict. It is unclear at this stage what is driving the policy change--whether Rajapakse sees it as a way to make his own imprint on the party, whether he is pandering to erstwhile SLFP voters who have migrated to the JVP, or whether he actually believes the anti-devolution rhetoric. Whatever his motivation, Rajapakse`s apparent reversion to SLFP `old-think` presents voters, for the first time in eleven years, with two sharply divergent approaches to resolving the ethnic conflict. End summary.
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WikiLeaks : Maamaa according to them Americanos...
Sunday, 4 September 2011 - 10:08 PM SL Time
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SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE
Classified By: AMB. JEFFREY J. LUNSTEAD. REASON: 1.4 (B,D).
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MEET THE NEW BOSS
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1. (SBU) Percy Mahendra (aka `Mahinda`) Rajapakse was sworn in as Sri Lanka`s fifth President on November 18, 2005--his 60th birthday. Like his predecessor and rival Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Rajapakse has the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in his blood, with his father, D.A. Rajapakse, joining Chandrika`s father S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to form the SLFP in 1951, and an uncle serving as a Cabinet Minister in the 1970 government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika`s mothers_day.jsp' class=black>mother. With his sterling SLFP credentials and with a brother and cousin also involved in politics--and with three young sons possibly contemplating political careers as well--Rajapakse is widely considered to represent the only real challenge to the Bandaranaike family`s dynastic grip on the party. The left-of-center economic policies endorsed in his campaign manifesto, as well as the quasi-nationalist sentiment in his anti-federalist stand on the peace process (Ref A), may reflect a conscious effort by Rajapakse to move the party away from the centrist positions espoused by Kumaratunga over her 11 years as president and back toward its original Sinhalese socialist roots. Rajapakse has a reputation for astutely outflanking domestic political rivals--his longevity within the corrosively internecine SLFP bears indirect testimony to this talent--but his experience on the international stage is limited. Although clearly indebted to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for his narrow victory at the November 17 presidential polls, Rajapakse will likely try to limit the former Marxists` influence in his administration. How successful he is in doing so will be one of the most important tests of his legendary political savvy.
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Rajapaksa comes down heavily on those demanding accountability
Monday, 5 September 2011 - 9:16 AM SL Time
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Coming down heavily on countries that demanded accountability for the civilian deaths in the last stages of the Eelam war IV in early 2009, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that for most of those who demand accountability, it was only a verbal apology for civilian deaths that are dismissed as collateral damage in heavy bombings.
He said the Sri Lankan success against terror was achieved with much less of the assets, and none of the deceit and duplicity of those [the U.S. and its allies] who have been waging a War on Terror for more than a decade those with much more economic and fire power than we had and many more allies than we ever had, but are still caught up in the killing fields made by unmanned drones and other lethal devices that attack civilians, too.
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Gaddafi gold-for-oil, dollar-doom plans behind Libya `mission`?
Monday, 5 September 2011 - 10:46 PM SL Time
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More speculation has been raised on the reasons for NATO`s intervention in Libya. As RT`s Laura Emmett reports, the organisation may have been trying to prevent Gaddafi from burying the American buck.
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Tamils are Tamils regardles of where they live. - Thivya (so just suck it up .. and stop complaining)
Tuesday, 6 September 2011 - 12:48 PM SL Time
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Fishermen in Sri Lanka`s North complain on declining fish harvest due to poaching by Indians
Sept 06, Jaffna: A fisheries society in Northern Sri Lanka complains that the encroaching of Indian fishermen into Sri Lankan waters has affected the fish harvest of the local fishermen.
The United Fisheries Society in Jaffna says that although the local fishermen are now free to engage in fishing without any restrictions, they are faced with a problem due to the declining fish harvest.
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How it all began...
Tuesday, 6 September 2011 - 7:25 PM SL Time
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SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: SEVEN CIVILIANS INJURED IN VIOLENT PROTEST IN NORTH
1. (U) SUMMARY: Seven civilians were injured when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers fired on a violent protest led by students affiliated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern district of Jaffna on December 19. In Colombo on December 17-18 security forces arrested and released over 100 suspects in neighborhood sweeps for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) declared the LTTE guilty of gross violations of the Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) after the December 14 shooting at a Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter in the eastern district of Ampara (Ref B). The CFA continues to hold--but under obvious and increasing pressure. End summary.
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Who Really Benefits From 9/11 and the War on Terror?
Sunday, 11 September 2011 - 10:26 AM SL Time
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Who really benefits from 9/11 and the war on terror? asked our banner at the Counter-Terror Expo 2010.
We do! It keeps us in work was the jovial response from a passing group of Navy personnel.
Quite.
But 9/11 has not just provided the foundational myth that has allowed the Anglo-American governments to justify increased defense spending on their modern day crusades, unhindered by public opinion and international law the terror myth has also provided a huge boost to many private sector businesses including, of course, the counter-terror sector. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, which, as a CIA insider told Harper`s magazine in 2006 [1], plays a large part in driving government policy an extension of the already all-powerful arms industry. And it has an annual trade show in London.
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Subterfuge of protecting free education
Sunday, 11 September 2011 - 10:22 PM SL Time
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The news that the main trade union of doctors in the country, the Government Medical Officers` Association (GMOA) is demanding that the university status granted to a private medical college in Malabe be withdrawn, is both shocking and unprofessional.
There is an eerie sense of d j vu in this. In the early eighties, when the North Colombo Medical College (NCMC) was set up in Ragama under the auspices of the J. R. Jayewardene regime too, the GMOA howled in protest.
That protest was later hijacked by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), only to be subsumed shortly in a greater crisis engulfing all universities in the JVP led insurrection. Under pressure, President Ranasinghe Premadasa converted the NCMC into the medical faculty of the Kelaniya University.
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Canadian Prime Minister may not attend Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka
Monday, 12 September 2011 - 9:51 AM SL Time
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Prime Minister of Canada Hon. Stephen Harper has said that as Prime Minister he will not attend Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka, if there is no progress in terms of human rights.
He also emphasized that Canada stands for seeing advances in political reconciliation, democratic values and accountability in Sri Lanka and supports actions by the UN Secereatry General`s representative in this regard.
Mr. Harper made the remarks in response to a question this past weekend at a meeting with journalists.
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Wikileaks : LTTE women were forcibly recruiting civilian women by abducting them in a state of undress
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 - 10:29 AM SL Time
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SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: MANNAR COULD FACE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
REF: COLOMBO 350
Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b,d).
1. (C) Summary: Ambassador met with military personnel and civil society members in Mannar on March 21, 2007, to discuss the humanitarian and security situation in the area. Over 8,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living on Madhu Church grounds in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory with no immediate solution in sight. IDPs suffer from lack of access to medical treatment, food, sanitation facilities and live under threat of forced recruitment by the LTTE. Should the Sri Lankan Military (SLM) take offensive action in the North, another 50,000 people may flee to areas like Mannar. The deterioration of law and order was creating an enabling environment for abductions, extortion and other crime. Ambassador strongly urged the Sri Lankan military to facilitate the transfer of food and medical supplies to IDPs and reminded them the conflict required a political, rather than a military, solution. End Summary.
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Sri Lanka bans mass animal sacrifice at temple
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 - 8:00 PM SL Time
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COLOMBO A Sri Lankan court has ordered an annual sacrifice ritual in which hundreds of goats are slaughtered to be halted after a petition by animal rights activists, police said Tuesday.
About 700 goats and scores of chickens were to be sacrificed on Tuesday during a traditional religious ceremony at the Munnewaram temple, just north of the capital Colombo.
The grisly ritual, in which goats are decapitated in public using a large hatchet, was first banned in the 1980s but was revived as locals believe the animals` blood wards off evil spirits.
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US embassy under attack in Afghanistan
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 - 8:08 PM SL Time
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KABUL, Afghanistan Taliban insurgents launched a coordinated attack Tuesday on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in the heart of the Afghan capital on Tuesday, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.
An embassy spokeswoman said no staff were reported wounded, but officials said at least one Afghan police officer and two insurgents had been killed as gunfire and explosions resounded across the city well into the afternoon.
The surge of violence was a stark reminder of the instability that continues to plague Afghanistan nearly a decade after the U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.
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US backing for Arab Spring bearing strange fruit
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 - 7:32 PM SL Time
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The US has strongly backed the Libyan opposition and is now enthusiastic in its condemnation of Syria`s President Bashar al-Assad. But could America`s decision to take sides bring some unexpected - and unwanted - results?
As nations in the Middle East and North Africa are torn between the struggle to bring about change and the struggle not to let that change ruin their lives, Washington views the Arab Spring as an opportunity to finally see some of its long-time foes crumble.
Under the umbrella of Arab revolutions, Washington is also beating the drums of regime-change in Syria, Iran`s closest ally in the region. Violence within the country has been widely condemned with countries like Russia and China calling for both sides in Syria to talk and end the bloodshed. However, America is blaming Assad alone.
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Another Demidenko? Niromi de Soyza as a Tiger Fighter
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 - 9:39 PM SL Time
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Michael Roberts, 21 August 2011
I began reading de Soyza`s Tamil Tigress in a relaxed moment while at tennis and was captivated by its readability and the author`s capacity to create atmosphere. I was fascinated by its casting, that is, her skill in crafting the work. De Soysa begins with a striking incident where she is introduced to the world as a neophyte fighter in an incident marked as Ambush where she is lucky to survive even while ten comrades, including platoon leader Muralie, perished. De Soysa then plunges her readers back in time by moving to her autobiographical family history and its various ethnic, intra-ethnic and caste tensions. Each chapter ends on a note of suspense and/or moment of change in life world, so that the readers are kept on their toes so to speak.
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Blake still unaware of Pillay s call for precise facts surrounding Osama killing
Thursday, 15 September 2011 - 9:54 AM SL Time
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September 14, 2011, 9:26 pm
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake yesterday claimed that he wasn`t aware of UN Human Rights Commissioner Navaneetham Pillay calling for a full inquiry into the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in early May in Pakistan.
Ambassador Blake said that he couldn`t really comment on that particular call attributed to Pillay. The former US Ambassador was responding to a query by The Island at a press conference at the conclusion of his visit.
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Mullivaikkal Hospital in NFZ
Thursday, 15 September 2011 - 7:05 PM SL Time
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During the ongoing propaganda war focusing on Eelam War IV moral crusaders insist that it was a war without witnesses in order to set up their descriptions and the testimonies from victims as the only true empirical evidence. The govt of Sri Lanka certainly kept a tight lid on access to the front for good military reasons. However they did take foreign contingents to the rear of battlelines from time to time while Muralidhar reddy of The Hindu visited the front on many occasions between October 2008 and May 2009 and on many occasions interviewed Tamil civilians who had escaped. Kanchan Prasad of Prasar Bharathi also visited the front from late January. Reddy and Prasad were among the only foreigners among a large contingent of local journalists who were taken to Kilinochchi on the 13th May. They also visited the last redoubt of the LTTE on every day from the 14th to 18th May inclusive and were able to travel the length and breadth of the area that had been re-captured. Their pictures there froe provide invaluable evidence of the landscape and its remaining buildings and flotsam/jetsam.
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SLA shelled and bombed Mullivaikkal Hospital in NFZ in 2009 even after providing the GPS coordinates to them by ICRC
Thursday, 15 September 2011 - 7:09 PM SL Time
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During the ongoing propaganda war focusing on Eelam War IV moral crusaders insist that it was a war without witnesses in order to set up their descriptions and the testimonies from victims as the only true empirical evidence. The govt of Sri Lanka certainly kept a tight lid on access to the front for good military reasons. However they did take foreign contingents to the rear of battlelines from time to time while Muralidhar reddy of The Hindu visited the front on many occasions between October 2008 and May 2009 and on many occasions interviewed Tamil civilians who had escaped. Kanchan Prasad of Prasar Bharathi also visited the front from late January. Reddy and Prasad were among the only foreigners among a large contingent of local journalists who were taken to Kilinochchi on the 13th May. They also visited the last redoubt of the LTTE on every day from the 14th to 18th May inclusive and were able to travel the length and breadth of the area that had been re-captured. Their pictures there froe provide invaluable evidence of the landscape and its remaining buildings and flotsam/jetsam.
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Canada to oppose bid for Palestinian statehood
Saturday, 17 September 2011 - 7:28 PM SL Time
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Canada will oppose an upcoming bid for statehood at the United Nations by Palestinians, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally committed to demanding what he called `our legitimate right` to a state in a speech on Friday.
On Friday, Harper said this sort of `unilateral action` on behalf of the Palestinian Authority is `very regrettable` and won`t help the goal of establishing long-term peace in the Middle East.
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Soldier jailed for seven years over murders of a civilian and keeping a finger from the victim as a souvenir
Saturday, 24 September 2011 - 7:40 PM SL Time
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A US soldier has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the murders of Afghan civilians last year.
Pvt 1st Class Andrew Holmes, 21, was among five soldiers charged over the `thrill killings` of the three civilians during patrols in Kandahar. The murders have been described as among the most serious war crimes charges to emerge from the Afghanistan war.
Holmes, from Boise, Idaho, confessed in court to firing a heavy machine gun at a boy from 15 feet away, after his co-defendant threw a grenade at him.
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Occupy Wall Street : Wall St protests, Police harsh, media silent?
Monday, 26 September 2011 - 3:56 AM SL Time
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Some 80 people have been arrested in lower Manhattan as the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest enters its second week. Police have been harsh in quelling the rally. However, not much of their violence is being reported by the mainstream media.
Tensions are rising near Wall Street, where hundreds of demonstrators fed up with the existing financial system have camped out to protest against bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis and social injustice. They also protested the US state of Georgia`s recent execution of Troy Davis.
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Finally some good news for our Eelamist friends :)
Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 5:42 PM SL Time
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A fanatical terrorist has escaped being thrown out of the UK because it would breach his human rights.
Hate-filled Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, graded the highest possible risk to the public, was released after serving just half of his nine-year sentence for helping the July 21 bombers.
He now mingles freely among the Londoners his co-plotters tried to kill six years ago.
Government officials are desperate to deport the Islamic fundamentalist back to his native Eritrea but have been told they cannot because he could face `inhumane treatment or punishment`.
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Hooray They are saved from human rights abuses
Thursday, 29 September 2011 - 10:28 AM SL Time
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The deportation of around 50 Sri Lankans from Britain was delayed yesterday after a British Court decided to review the asylum seekers cases.
Official documents obtained by Channel 4 News indicate that Flight PV030 was scheduled to depart for Sri Lanka with up to 50 returnees at 1500hrs on Wednesday 28th September. The documents reveal that passengers would comprise a mixture of failed asyslum-seekers, foreign national prisoners and other immigration offenders.
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