http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/02/01/news13.asp

Suicide vest is five years old- Govt Analyst

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Explosives experts confirmed that the suicide vest that was found by Police at a rest house in Kataragama yesterday was made five years ago.

Police Spokesman Superintendent of Police Ajith Rohana said, the suicide kit was defused after it was examined by the Government Analyst's Department.
Government Analyst W A R Fernando reportedly told the Police after checking the ammunition that the device had been planted there by LTTE cadres for some action several years ago.
Fernando determined that it does not present any form of an emerging threat against civilian life.
The jacket was first found by a repairman who came to find tools for his work from the stores of the rest house around 9 am.
The suicide vest was a used tyre in the room, said SP Rohana.
"Police believe that some LTTE cadre had brought this to the rest house during the period of war. It has lain there for years without being touched by anyone," he said.
Kataragama Police have conducted a search following the detection of the jacket.
They have questioned all the pilgrims who were staying at the guest house at the time.
No one has been arrested, SP Rohana said.
Police have recorded statements from the manager of the rest house and its employees.
Kataragama Police are investigating.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=44291


Norwegian Tamil wanted as terroristJanuary 30, 2012, 10:11 pm

"A 35 year old man living in Norway, who is supposed to be the new leader of the Tamil guerrilla organization LTTE, is wanted by Interpol for terrorism," Norway’s NRK TV reported yesterday
It said "the suspected man has been resident in this country since 2005. He is resident in a municipality on the West Coast, where he has kept a low profile. The government of Sri Lanka believes that man is the leader or one of the leaders of the remnants of the LTTE.
"NRK has talked to the chief of police in the district where the Tamil man is living, and he was not aware that a person in his district was wanted by Interpol. On the websites of Interpol it says the man is wanted for terrorism.
"Communications Director Trond Hugubakken from the Police Security Services (PST) cannot comment to NRK whether this man is known to them or not. On a general basis, he said that the PST does not start an investigation against a person who has legal residence in Norway, but it is suspected that the person concerned has made himself guilty of crimes in his country.
"Professor Øyvind Fuglerud at the Centre for Environment and Development at the University of Oslo, has a good knowledge of the situation in Sri Lanka. He does not know the person in question other than by reputation, but says that credible sources, he has been in contact with believe that he is the new leader of the LTTE.
"LTTE guerrillas were defeated by the Sri Lankan government forces in May 2010 after a strong military offensive.
"Fuglerud also knows that the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, last autumn, in a briefing on the fight against the LTTE outside Sri Lanka, had mentioned about this particular person. On this background, says Fuglerud, it is not surprising that Sri Lanka has now called for him through Interpol.
- Internal power struggle
"He can also tell that some sources talking about a power struggle between the remnants of the Tamil guerrilla organization. And the side that this man belongs to is less willing to dialogue with the Sri Lankan government than the other side.
"He also says that in the Tamil community there is disagreement about the importance of the man who is now wanted by Interpol. It is also unclear how many people support this part of the organization, and how realistic they are. The professor has the impression that it is a closed structure. "

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/31/sec01.asp

LTTE: a trail of atrocities
Attack on Central Bank 16 years ago :
It was a day of fire and ash. A day when carnage reined supreme. A day when Colombo was struck with shock and disbelief. On January 31, 1996, the whole of Sri Lanka was given a dose of reality at how real the terrorist threat was.
It was the day that the truth dawned in the minds of all Sri Lankans that the LTTE would kill again and again.
Today, marks the 16th anniversary when 86 people lost their lives including 41 Central Bank employees and 1,338 were injured. The cause of this was the LTTE.
Ishara Jayawardane

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201201/20120130sl_among_kuoni_top_five_destinations.htm
Monday, January 30, 2012 - 4.35 GMT
SL among Kuoni's top five destinations

Sri Lanka has been named among the top five destinations in Kuoni’s annual poll of where UK customers want to spend their holidays. Sri Lanka also retained the number one destination for weddings according to the report.Where holidaymakers want to go is just part of leading tour operator Kuoni’s annual Travel Trends Report. The 20-page report also tracks hot travel trends and the top destinations for weddings and honeymoons, for families, for solo travellers, for pampering spa holidays, for the most exciting adventures and authentic experiences as well as the best destinations for those that care about the planet.The report also highlights changes in holiday behaviour and includes trends in holiday booking behaviour, such as the importance of social media in driving holiday choices.Sri Lanka retained number one destination for weddings, Kuramathi Island Resort in the Maldives kept the top slot for family destinations, as did Thailand for solo holidays.The winner of the Top 10 adventure holiday is the 11-day tour of culture-rich Sri Lanka on the Ceylon Tour, while those looking for the best Planet Friendly Holiday voted for Governors Main Camp in the wildlife safari heaven of Kenya.The Report’s 2012 figures are based on holiday bookings made as at December 2011.Kuoni has been undertaking the annual Travel Trends Report since 1980.Recently National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveller also named Sri Lanka among 'Best Trips for 2012.

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201201/20120126troops_ex_ltte_combatants.htm

Troops, ex-LTTE combatants breed crabs

A Crab-breeding project is now being implemented in Karampan, Kayts by former LTTE combatants and Jaffna troops. Office of the civil affairs in Jaffna commenced the project three months ago with the express intention of providing a means of income and livelihood to rehabilitated youths who are living along the Karampan costal belt in the Kayts island. The Northern Province Governor’s office allocated Rs.1.6 million for the pilot project, comprised 16 crab ponds in an area of 50ft x 40ft each.At the initial stage, baby water crabs are reared in two ponds. As recommended by the experts, the Karampan beach site for crabs was selected since crabs are now found abundantly in Kokilai and Nayaroo lagoons in the Northeast of the Kayts island. At present off season currents do not let fishermen collect water crabs from Jaffna lagoons.

http://malindawords.blogspot.com/2012/01/kumarigama-ampara-1988-and-2010.html


Kumarigama, Ampara: 1988 and 2010
A revisitation
The year was 1988. September, if I remember right. I was on a private bus, going from Kandy to Ampara. Uhana, actually. Kumarigama to be precise. One of the villages that sprung up thanks to the Gal Oya Project. I was with a university batchmate, Premasiri, who was from Kumarigama. This was ‘LTTE time’. This was a time of unexpected attacks at night and even during the day. LTTE ‘freedom fighters’ setting up booby traps, stopping buses, shooting passengers, storming into villages murdering children, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly in cold blood. It was a time of butchery.
I was at the back of the bus. We were approaching Arantalawa, where the LTTE had killed some 30 odd Buddhist bikkhus traveling in a bus. A fellow passenger, a student from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, seated at the left end of the back seat of the bus, i.e. next to me, told me (in jest): ‘This is a dangerous stretch; the LTTE can come out from the shrub jungles over there (pointing towards the East) and shoot. We are used to it. We have our palms to protects us (he lifted his left hand, finger outstretched and together, indicating that this was how a bullet that might otherwise hit the head would be stopped).’ I saw the humour but couldn’t really laugh. Humour. That’s all they had.
That night, seated outside his house, Premasiri told me how the LTTE had attacked a village close to his: ‘They came in the night. Everyone was asleep. Before anyone could do anything, they had killed dozens of people.’
‘The following night, some young men from the next village retaliated; they stormed into a Tamil village, the closest one, and killed innocent people. I saw the dead. The Sinhalese who died and also the Tamils. They all looked the same. All poor. The same kind of impoverishment. The same bellies carrying the same amount of rice. Not much.’
Today, August 5, 2010, I came down the same road. There were no jokes about LTTE attacks, stopping bullets like Baron Munchausen. There were some bunkers here and there, but not every 50 m or so. There was one check point at Maha Oya. I remembered a different time.
I remembered getting down from the bus on several occasions, walking through check points. Having bags checked. Having soldiers running their hands all over me. Necessary inconveniences. Happily suffered. That was a different time, a different country.
Twenty two years ago, almost, I spent a night in Kumarigama. I remember thinking that there was no one who could guarantee that there wouldn’t be an LTTE attack that night. I remember thinking that there was nothing that anyone could do. Life was a lottery. It was to become a different kind of lottery not too long afterwards when the JVP and UNP thought it would be fun to see who could wring the necks of the ordinary citizenry more effectively, but that night fear had a name: LTTE.
Right now, I am in Kumarigama. Same house. I didn’t come with Premasiri. Premasiri’s father, one of the first ‘settlers’ is no more. His brother, Weerasinghe, ‘Loku Aiya’ to all of us, is now the principal of the ‘village school’, Kumarigama Maha Vidyalaya. His other brothers, Oliver and Kumara are out in the fields, harvesting paddy. Loku Aiya’s son, Isuru, at the time a mischievous little baby, is now repeating his A/L exam. He took my 9 year old daughter, along with his 12 year old cousin Samadhi and her brother, 9 year old Nipun to watch their uncles at work. This is post-LTTE Sri Lanka. It’s a post-war Sri Lanka.
I don’t know the name of those villagers who were slaughtered in those terrible days. If that was alleviating grievance or countering terrorism, I’d much rather live with grievance and terrorism. I know we are not living in a perfect world, but this imperfection is good. Premasiri’s mother, M.D. Babynona, now 69, seems not to have aged. Same affection. Same warmth. Same simple loveliness of being. There is electricity now. There’s harvesting. Life is good.
I am not living in a Perfect Sri Lanka. This is however a New Sri Lanka. In a way a consolation prize and nothing more, yes. Looked at from another angle, this is good enough, one could say

http://www.nationalsecurity.lk/MCNS/defence-security/index.php

Thursday, January 26, 2012

LTTE brutal attack to the Temple of Tooth marks 14 years
25 Jan 2012 - 13:13

Today (25th January 2012) marks the LTTE brutal attack on the most Sacred Temple of Tooth Relic in the ancient city Kandy in 1998.At 6:10 am on 25th January 1998, suicide carders of the LTTE exploded a massive truck bomb at the entrance to the Sri Dalada Maligawa killing 8 persons including 2-year old infant and injuring about 25 others, all peaceful innocent civilians, who were on their way to offer alms at the temple that morning.

The destruction caused to the venerated shrine by the LTTE terrorists was thoroughly condemned by the whole world and attacking to the people through their faith can not be erased from the heart and minds of the Buddhists world.

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201201/20120123tourists_thrilled_sl_visit.htm


Tourists thrilled with Sri Lankan visit

A British author, Anna Pavord thrilled with a short visit to Sri Lanka and has written an article to the UK’s The Independent titled “Discover vertical rock climbs and giant Buddhas in a Sri Lankan idyll”.
She says she was “gladdest to have seen is Gal Vihara, where four monumental Buddhas (the biggest is 14m tall) are carved from a single rock face”.
The writer was awestruck by the technical complexity of the Buddha Statues at the Gal Vihara.
But she says “technique isn't the point. The serene calmness of the figures is what you remember, the smoothly rounded simplicity of their lines, their stillness and their ability to still those who stand in front of them”.
Mesmerized by a site in the Knuckles Range she says,” "Happiness is five horizons," says an old Chinese proverb. Here, there were at least eight, with the waters of the Victoria Reservoir sparkling in the mid-ground.”
Here is the text of the article:
Going to Sri Lanka for the first time gave us an excuse to buy some new maps. That's how our journeys always start. The journey we worked out took us straight from Colombo on the west coast up to the ancient sites of Dambulla and Polonnaruwa, in the centre of the island.
I'm a bad sight-seer – I find it too difficult to set what I'm seeing in any meaningful context. But we climbed the vertical face of the Lion Rock at Sigiriya. (Don't ask how many steps there are before you start, or else you'll never do it – it's 200m high and there's only one way to go. Straight up.)We wandered through the ruins of the old royal capital at Polonnaruwa. But the sight I'm gladdest to have seen is Gal Vihara, where four monumental Buddhas (the biggest is 14m tall) are carved from a single rockface.
You don't need to know 'when' or 'how' or 'why' to respond to these figures. In some part of your brain you appreciate the technical complexity of what you are looking at – the different coloured strata of the rock rippling smoothly through the faces and hands and robes of the Buddhas before morphing again into the jagged face of the cliff.
But technique isn't the point. The serene calmness of the figures is what you remember, the smoothly rounded simplicity of their lines, their stillness and their ability to still those who stand in front of them.
We stitched in all the should-do stuff at the beginning of our journey. And then we started walking. Our first base was Rangala House, in the Knuckles Range east of Kandy, where Anthony Newman, who came to Kandy to head up a school, has settled for the duration. From the narrow road, you emerge through his house onto a verandah with a view that shimmers southwards seemingly forever. "Happiness is five horizons," says an old Chinese proverb. Here, there were at least eight, with the waters of the Victoria Reservoir sparkling in the mid-ground.
There are just three rooms to let at Rangala House, where Newman's Sri Lankan cook, Sebastian, gave us the best food we ate on our entire trip. Newman even had details of a good walk all written out, which is handy in a place where you can't get hold of maps as detailed as our Ordnance Surveys. This is tea territory, of course, and his walk mostly took us through the sculpted, shining rows of tea bushes that swoop like contour lines round the slopes of the hills.
On the high ground, tea gives way to big forest trees, underplanted with sheaves of cardamom. The tea-pickers are mostly Tamils – Hindu rather than Buddhist – and during our walks over the next couple of weeks, we often passed their shrines, made by a spring or alongside a particularly old and splendid tree.
On this walk, there was a memorable one beneath a huge, buttressed Terminalia bellirica, three pointed stones, shawled in orange gauze under a shelter in the middle of nowhere. But the shrine was set high on a ridge, just at the point where you leave the views of one valley and embrace the vast panorama laid out before you in the next. The track eventually leads back down to the narrow road and a tea factory where a big, square pond is crammed with lotus and blue waterlilies.
When we left Rangala, we doubled back to Kandy where we picked up a train at Peradeniya station. We rode this all the way to Talawakelle, the first of three train rides that gradually shifted us south and east towards Badulla where the line finishes. It's best towards the end, where the tea country runs out and the train moves through spectacularly wild country, with tree ferns erupting between huge mounds of a red-flowered rhododendron.
When we went into tunnels, all the children on the train whooped and hollered and the noise ricocheted through the blackness: wawawawawawa. The stations are terrific. On the platform outside the District Engineer's Upper Office at Nanu Oya is an enchanting balustraded garden with HT roses, asters and a pair of white plaster swans in a pool of water lilies.
Perhaps our best walk was from a bungalow at Bogawantalawa near Hatton. It started as an amble and turned into a magnificent five-hour climb, which, once again, ended at a Hindu shrine above a remote settlement of huts surrounded by immaculate vegetable gardens. Leeks, carrots, beetroot, cabbages and cauliflowers were all being grown in raised beds, knocked up on narrow terraces stolen from the hill.
First we crossed the river below the bungalow where, beyond the bridge, the road turns left for the Kirkoswald tea estate, right for Theresia. Then, keeping the distant settlement as our goal, we just followed tracks through the Theresia estate, past waterfalls and washing pools, past kingfishers and buzzards, past tea pickers and wood gatherers, past noisy packs of dogs and waving children. Huge African tulip trees (Spathodea campanulata) in vivid red bloom marked the rigid hierarchies of the imperial age: three trees in the garden of the manager's bungalow, two for a superintendent, one for an assistant.

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201201/20120124ex_cadres_reintegration_accelerated.htm
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - 6.36 GMT
Ex-cadres reintegration accelerated

Reintegration of former LTTE cadres is accelerated under the Government’s initiative to re-unite them with their relations.Accordingly, 78 rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres were reintegrated to society on Sunday (Jan. 22) after successful completion of their rehabilitation programme.
Also, action has been taken to reintegrate another batch of ex-cadres on February 08, parallel to the ‘Deyata Kirula’ programme.
According to the Department of Rehabilitation, more than 10, 000 ex-LTTE cadres out of 11, 984 have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society so far.
Furthermore, measures have been undertaken to release the remaining, less than 1000 ex-cadres undergoing rehabilitation soon.

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120123_04


Discover vertical rock climbs and giant Buddhas in a Sri Lankan idyll
www.defence.lk">Going to Sri Lanka for the first time gave us an excuse to buy some new maps. That's how our journeys always start. The journey we worked out took us straight from Colombo on the west coast up to the ancient sites of Dambulla and Polonnaruwa, in the centre of the island.
I'm a bad sight-seer - I find it too difficult to set what I'm seeing in any meaningful context. But we climbed the vertical face of the Lion Rock at Sigiriya. (Don't ask how many steps there are before you start, or else you'll never do it - it's 200m high and there's only one way to go. Straight up.)
We wandered through the ruins of the old royal capital at Polonnaruwa. But the sight I'm gladdest to have seen is Gal Vihara, where four monumental Buddhas (the biggest is 14m tall) are carved from a single rockface.
You don't need to know 'when' or 'how' or 'why' to respond to these figures. In some part of your brain you appreciate the technical complexity of what you are looking at - the different coloured strata of the rock rippling smoothly through the faces and hands and robes of the Buddhas before morphing again into the jagged face of the cliff.
But technique isn't the point. The serene calmness of the figures is what you remember, the smoothly rounded simplicity of their lines, their stillness and their ability to still those who stand in front of them.
We stitched in all the should-do stuff at the beginning of our journey. And then we started walking. Our first base was Rangala House, in the Knuckles Range east of Kandy, where Anthony Newman, who came to Kandy to head up a school, has settled for the duration. From the narrow road, you emerge through his house onto a verandah with a view that shimmers southwards seemingly forever. "Happiness is five horizons," says an old Chinese proverb. Here, there were at least eight, with the waters of the Victoria Reservoir sparkling in the mid-ground.
There are just three rooms to let at Rangala House, where Newman's Sri Lankan cook, Sebastian, gave us the best food we ate on our entire trip. Newman even had details of a good walk all written out, which is handy in a place where you can't get hold of maps as detailed as our Ordnance Surveys. This is tea territory, of course, and his walk mostly took us through the sculpted, shining rows of tea bushes that swoop like contour lines round the slopes of the hills.
On the high ground, tea gives way to big forest trees, underplanted with sheaves of cardamom. The tea-pickers are mostly Tamils - Hindu rather than Buddhist - and during our walks over the next couple of weeks, we often passed their shrines, made by a spring or alongside a particularly old and splendid tree.
On this walk, there was a memorable one beneath a huge, buttressed Terminalia bellirica, three pointed stones, shawled in orange gauze under a shelter in the middle of nowhere. But the shrine was set high on a ridge, just at the point where you leave the views of one valley and embrace the vast panorama laid out before you in the next. The track eventually leads back down to the narrow road and a tea factory where a big, square pond is crammed with lotus and blue waterlilies.
When we left Rangala, we doubled back to Kandy where we picked up a train at Peradeniya station. We rode this all the way to Talawakelle, the first of three train rides that gradually shifted us south and east towards Badulla where the line finishes. It's best towards the end, where the tea country runs out and the train moves through spectacularly wild country, with tree ferns erupting between huge mounds of a red-flowered rhododendron. www.defence.lk">
When we went into tunnels, all the children on the train whooped and hollered and the noise ricocheted through the blackness: wawawawawawa. The stations are terrific. On the platform outside the District Engineer's Upper Office at Nanu Oya is an enchanting balustraded garden with HT roses, asters and a pair of white plaster swans in a pool of water lilies.
Perhaps our best walk was from a bungalow at Bogawantalawa near Hatton. It started as an amble and turned into a magnificent five-hour climb, which, once again, ended at a Hindu shrine above a remote settlement of huts surrounded by immaculate vegetable gardens. Leeks, carrots, beetroot, cabbages and cauliflowers were all being grown in raised beds, knocked up on narrow terraces stolen from the hill.
First we crossed the river below the bungalow where, beyond the bridge, the road turns left for the Kirkoswald tea estate, right for Theresia. Then, keeping the distant settlement as our goal, we just followed tracks through the Theresia estate, past waterfalls and washing pools, past kingfishers and buzzards, past tea pickers and wood gatherers, past noisy packs of dogs and waving children. Huge African tulip trees (Spathodea campanulata) in vivid red bloom marked the rigid hierarchies of the imperial age: three trees in the garden of the manager's bungalow, two for a superintendent, one for an assistant.
During our travels we stayed at seven different places. Our favourites were Lunuganga (which I wrote about just before Christmas), Rangala House, 92b Bobebilla Road, Makuldeniya, Nr Teldeniya, Central Province, rangalahouse.com, and Aerie Cottage, one of three bungalows to rent on the Kelburne Mountain View Estate, nr Haputale, kelburnemountainview.com. This estate is right at the southern edge of the hill country and has spectacular views down to the coast at Hambantota. Having made a plan, we handed the details to Red Dot Tours (reddottours.com) who booked everything (flights, accommodation, etc) and did a superb job
Courtesy : The Independent

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120123_01

'Lankans abroad must help War Heroes' children'
'The majority of Sri Lankans are peace loving and hospitable. It is only a handful that create mischief and damage the country's image, Prime Minister D M Jayaratne said.
He was addressing a scholarships awarding ceremony at the Prime Minister's office last week.
The ceremony was organized by the Ranaviru Seva Authority. Funds were donated by Sri Lankan workers in Kuwait.
Thirty children belonging to families of Security Forces' personnel whose fathers were killed in action or were disabled, were granted scholarships.
Kuwait employee Gamini Wijeratna had organized the musical show Suramya Rathriya and collected funds for the scholarships.
Journalist Daya Lankapura is the coordinator of this programme.
"This type of programme will help children who lost their fathers in the war. It is the duty of Lankans living in other countries to help these children," the Prime Minister said.
"President Mahinda Rajapaksa is always concerned about families of Forces' personnel. A commemorative monument was built opposite Parliament to remember Forces' personnel who sacrificed their lives for the motherland," he said.
The President has also taken action to offer other needs, including houses and land to these families, the Prime Minister said.
"Children should also pay attention to their studies and develop their minds in a proper way. It is necessary to develop the mind and body to be happy. Consuming nutritious food is important for a healthy life. Children also need to develop spiritually. It is their duty to pay gratitude to individuals who offer such donations," he said.
Ranaviru Seva Authority deputy chairman R S Ariyapperuma said due to the sacrifices made by Forces' personnel, the people have the opportunity to lead peaceful lives.
Ranaviru Seva Authority project managing director H Ruberu Thanthirige also participated.
Courtesy : Daily News

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120123_03

Another batch of rehabilitated ex-combatants released
The government yesterday, (22 Jan) reintegrated another batch of 78 rehabilitated former Tamil Tiger members to the society, after successful completion of their rehabilitation programme.
At a ceremony held at the Batticaloa Municipal Council Hall in the Eastern Province, Deputy Minister of Resettlement Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan and Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera handed over the rehabilitated ex-combatants to their parents.
Ex-combatants also showcased their talents at a variety show organized at the event.
Also, the ex-LTTE cadres, who have successfully completed their rehabilitation program were given vocational training in several sectors to assist them to start self-employment.
Deputy Minister for Women and Child welfare MLAM Hizbullah, government officials and the parents of the released former LTTE cadres participated in the occasion.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/21/main_Editorial.asp

Kilinochchi's memorable moment
There are no less than nine banks already operative in Kilinochchi along with a clutch of financial institutions which are putting their best foot forward in sustaining the growth momentum of the Northern Province. This bit of valuable information we have on the authority of the Sri Lanka Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal. Hardly three years after the obliteration of the LTTE, whose final stronghold was Kilinochchi, this is indeed heartening news.
It is our hope that prospects will remain bright for the Northern Province, including, of course, Kilinochchi, where the Commercial Leasing and Finance Company opened its 50th branch. Concurrently, a joint venture between the Bank of Ceylon and Cargills Ceylon Ltd, Yalpanam Dairy Ltd, was also launched in this once war- ravaged district which formerly wilted amid the roar and thunder of heavy weaponry but which never died. In fact, it has now been rejuvenated, thanks to the bravery of our Security Forces ably guided by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In a sense, the challenges facing the Lankan polity in the North today are far more complex than those which confronted it in the field of battle. On the one hand, it has to begin in earnest with the nation-building process, which in itself presents a multi-faceted challenge. On the other, it has to persist with the process of economic development and this should be of country-wide scope, drawing heavily also on the growth momentum of the North.
The nation-building and economic development processes, as far as we could ascertain, are not entirely separate. It is to the degree to which the citizenry, including that of the North-East, is helped along and continuously empowered by the state in a multiplicity of spheres, including the political and economic, that nation-making in the true sense could be said to be occurring. For, through such empowerment, provided it is equal, the citizenry would be enabled to identify closely with the country.
On the other hand, it is development, correctly understood, which helps in the empowerment of the citizenry a great deal by promoting the material empowerment of the people. Therefore, development, understood as growth plus equity, plays a considerable role in nation-building, while the latter, understood as equal empowerment, enables a community to identify more closely with the country through its conviction that justice is being done. Accordingly, the conclusion is inescapable that nation-building and economic development are mutually-reinforcing processes.
It is against this backdrop that the state's efforts to take development to all areas of the North-East must be assessed. We are given to understand that the North has recorded 22 percent growth and this is a clear pointer to the economic vibrancy of the province. The authorities should now ensure that this economic dynamism is channeled to the overall development of the country.
Accordingly, it is entirely in the fitness of things that districts such as Kilinochchi are integrated steadily into the national economy through a sustained effort to increase the productivity of these areas. The launching of financial services in increasing numbers to enable the people of these districts to avail of capital to launch business enterprises is the right way to go, not only from a national development viewpoint but also from the nation-building perspective. Likewise, the Jaffna International Trade Fair, which is currently on, will prove more than a catalyst in integrating the North with the national economy. Increasingly, the North-East must be a stakeholder in national growth.
The tragic 30 year conflict had its roots in deprivations of numerous kinds. It is deprivation and discrimination that gave rise to the perception among some in the North-East that ethnicity matters very crucially. At bottom, identity-based conflicts are all about such perceptions. Therefore, it is vitally important that all sections of our people are empowered equally and economic development is a crucial factor in empowerment.

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120118_09

Whale-watching in Lanka
(Shruthi Mathews)
www.defence.lk">I recently travelled to Sri Lanka with the intention of writing a travel piece. Admittedly, I spent less time travelling and more time, well, never mind, but my so-called travels did end up in a rather interesting whale watching excursion.
There are a lot of nice things for tourists to do in Sri Lanka, but whale-watching is one particular activity that seems to be experiencing quite a hike in popularity. There are several spots around the island where you can do this, depending on the season. Mirissa, which is on the southern tip, is considered one of the best sites in the world to spot both blue and sperm whales. I remember going there about four years ago and getting on a small, rickety sort of boat with a handful of people. Now I find myself climbing aboard a huge boat and being given food and bottled water - as well as a very professional-looking pamphlet about the tour.
How swiftly things change.
Whilst in Sri Lanka, I also happened to watch a film called Adaptation, which I'm reminded of as I sit down to write this. The main character, Charlie Kaufman, is a screenwriter faced with the task of adapting a book about orchids into a film. One of Kaufman's issues (and he has many) is how to make a story about orchids interesting. I find myself in a similar situation when it comes to whales.
This isn't to suggest that whales aren't beautiful, magnificent wonders of the natural world - they are this and more; as are orchids. But whale-watching is a fundamentally underwhelming experience. Sort of like New Year Eve.
Anti-climax is the almost inevitable consequence of anything that has been, for want of better phrasing, 'hyped up' - and whale-watching comes with an inherent hype: the prospect of seeing the largest animal on earth in its natural habitat is, of course, fairly thrilling. So despite the early start (if travelling from Colombo to Mirissa, the journey to the harbour takes around three hours. The boat leaves at 6 am. You calculate) people are generally quite excited as they stand on the shores of the vast blue sea, filled with promise and expectation.
And there really is something quite ennobling about facing the ocean at sunrise and feeling the brisk sea-spray on your face. Personally, I had visions of myself as a young Odysseus about to embark on a perilous adventure filled with wondrous, mythical creatures; I glanced around and noticed that I wasn't the only one caught in a reverie of some sort - although there was a significant group who seemed to possess a more Captain Ahab-like energy. Well, not in wanting to kill Moby Dick, but just being the first ones to spot him.
There were several false alarms before the actual sightings: "Whale! Oh, no... just a flying fish." "Whale! No, no... a sea-turtle."
But when we did eventually see one, it was truly exhilarating, if brief. You don't really see an awful lot of the whale. Just it's back, and the fluke - which I have since learned is what you call the forked tail. And it's more a flashing image than a sustained moment.
But here's the thing, the first, second, and even third sighting is wonderful. There's something quite special that comes from knowing that a creature so huge and powerful exists - and that you're right there, almost close enough to touch. By the time you get to your fourth whale, however, you begin to stop caring. I had forgotten the very serious downside of the trip: sea-sickness. After having seen a couple of whales, the majority of the formerly excited troop were lying supine on mats and cushions, fanning themselves with the pamphlets to fend off the nausea.
It happens, and there's generally not much you can do about it. However, whilst this is a downside, it shouldn't be a deterrent. The intermittent moments between spewing your breakfast over the side of the boat when you do actually see the spray or fluke of a whale are breathtaking. These moments are rare and few. Much like the species itself. Blue whale hunting reached a peak in the 1960s, and what remains of the species today is estimated to be only around five percent of its original population. We were fortunate in that we actually saw quite a few. But once the novelty of actually seeing them had worn off, people became less excited.
But regardless of the generally waning enthusiasm, every time the boat raced towards a whale, there was definitely an excited little shiver that darted up my spine. It's an experience, and a unique one at that. Just be prepared, and don't expect too much. That way you'll be happy.
Courtesy : The Hindu

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120119_02


Govt - TNA dialogue, a way for political settlement - Indian External Affairs Minister
We believe that continuation of the dialogue between the Government and the TNA would pave the way for political settlement, including under the rubric of the Parliamentary Select Committee, India's External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna said.
It is our hope that the vision and leadership that resulted in an end to armed conflict will now be employed in the quest for a genuine political reconciliation, the Indian Minister said addressing a press conference after his meeting with External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday in Colombo.
While reiterating India's is commitment to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, Minister Krishna said India is looking forward to progress in the ongoing dialogue process, in order to address this issue in a timely manner. We will continue to work with the Government of Sri Lanka, and help in whatever way we can, to take this process forward, in a spirit of partnership and cooperation.
He said India has noted the many constructive recommendations contained in the recently-released report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"These recommendations, when implemented, would mark a major step forward in the process of genuine national reconciliation, to which the Sri Lankan government is committed. Sri Lanka must seize this opportunity," Indian External Affairs Minister said.
The Indian Minister, who arrived in Sri Lanka Monday on a four-day official visit met the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier on Tuesday and exchanged views on ways to take the bilateral relationship between the two countries forward.
With his Sri Lankan counterpart Prof. G. L. Peiris, Krishna has reviewed the progress in various areas of interest, including trade, services and investment, development cooperation, science and technology, culture and education and expressed satisfaction that the projects under India's development partnership have progressed well since his last visit.
Our development assistance projects are entirely based on the priorities set by the government and the people of Sri Lanka, he said.
Minister Krishna discussing the trade between the two countries observed that bilateral trade in goods would touch the US$ 5 billion mark.
Noting that India is a leading player in Sri Lanka, as far as investments and tourist arrivals are concerned, the Indian Minister pointed out the need to finalize a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation to sustain the positive momentum in the trade and economic relations and take it to the next level.
Speaking of the fishermen issue, Minister Krishna said the matter needs to be handled with care on both sides since it is a sensitive issue.
He stressed that there must be no use of force against the fishermen and that they must be treated in a humane manner and expressed satisfaction that the Joint Working Group on Fisheries which met recently in Colombo, was able to look at various options to address the nagging issue.
The Minister will visit Jaffna today to hand over the first lot of the houses that were built under the Pilot Project for construction of the first 1000 houses, to the beneficiaries.
The Indian External Affairs Minister will also be visiting Kilinochchi to handover medical equipment to the District General Hospital.
India and Sri Lanka are bound by ties of history, geography and culture. Our partnership must therefore progress in the spirit of being the closest of neighbours and friends, whose destinies are intertwined, the Minister concluded.
Courtesy: President's Media Unit

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120119_02

Govt - TNA dialogue, a way for political settlement - Indian External Affairs Minister
We believe that continuation of the dialogue between the Government and the TNA would pave the way for political settlement, including under the rubric of the Parliamentary Select Committee, India's External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna said.
It is our hope that the vision and leadership that resulted in an end to armed conflict will now be employed in the quest for a genuine political reconciliation, the Indian Minister said addressing a press conference after his meeting with External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday in Colombo.
While reiterating India's is commitment to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, Minister Krishna said India is looking forward to progress in the ongoing dialogue process, in order to address this issue in a timely manner. We will continue to work with the Government of Sri Lanka, and help in whatever way we can, to take this process forward, in a spirit of partnership and cooperation.
He said India has noted the many constructive recommendations contained in the recently-released report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"These recommendations, when implemented, would mark a major step forward in the process of genuine national reconciliation, to which the Sri Lankan government is committed. Sri Lanka must seize this opportunity," Indian External Affairs Minister said.
The Indian Minister, who arrived in Sri Lanka Monday on a four-day official visit met the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier on Tuesday and exchanged views on ways to take the bilateral relationship between the two countries forward.
With his Sri Lankan counterpart Prof. G. L. Peiris, Krishna has reviewed the progress in various areas of interest, including trade, services and investment, development cooperation, science and technology, culture and education and expressed satisfaction that the projects under India's development partnership have progressed well since his last visit.
Our development assistance projects are entirely based on the priorities set by the government and the people of Sri Lanka, he said.
Minister Krishna discussing the trade between the two countries observed that bilateral trade in goods would touch the US$ 5 billion mark.
Noting that India is a leading player in Sri Lanka, as far as investments and tourist arrivals are concerned, the Indian Minister pointed out the need to finalize a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation to sustain the positive momentum in the trade and economic relations and take it to the next level.
Speaking of the fishermen issue, Minister Krishna said the matter needs to be handled with care on both sides since it is a sensitive issue.
He stressed that there must be no use of force against the fishermen and that they must be treated in a humane manner and expressed satisfaction that the Joint Working Group on Fisheries which met recently in Colombo, was able to look at various options to address the nagging issue.
The Minister will visit Jaffna today to hand over the first lot of the houses that were built under the Pilot Project for construction of the first 1000 houses, to the beneficiaries.
The Indian External Affairs Minister will also be visiting Kilinochchi to handover medical equipment to the District General Hospital.
India and Sri Lanka are bound by ties of history, geography and culture. Our partnership must therefore progress in the spirit of being the closest of neighbours and friends, whose destinies are intertwined, the Minister concluded.
Courtesy: President's Media Unit

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/19/news32.asp


Lankan doctor who helped Tigers wants UK job back
A Sri Lankan doctor who admitted aiding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began his appeal on Tuesday to be allowed to resume work in Britain.
Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy spent almost five years in a US jail for providing material support to the LTTE.
The 62-year-old doctor was released last year and has asked Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) if he can see patients again at the clinic he runs with his wife in Enfield, North London. But at a disciplinary hearing, the GMC, which registers doctors to practise in Britain, said Vinayagamoorthy's links to the LTTE had "stepped wildly beyond any reasonable boundary." "The conviction is a conviction of a serious offence," GMC lawyer Charles Garside said on the first day of a three-day hearing in Manchester, northwest England. "The doctor practises in London, a very multi-racial city including Sinhalese and Tamil people," he said.
"A substantial number of people would feel unease at consulting a doctor who was convicted of offences in relation to terrorism." AFP

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120107_01


Visual Evidence II: Torture Images on Channel 4 ... and Weiss
(By: Michael Roberts)
www.defence.lk">
Frontispiece images in the Gordon Weiss web-site -- http://www.gordonweissauthor.com/press.html# I
In the course of my researches into the emergence of Ceylonese nationalism in the British period, I delved in considerable detail into an event that was referred to then as "the 1915 riots" -the term "riots" in South Asia being a mechanical reproduction of the terminology of the British legal lexiconto describe affrays of all sorts. In 1915 this short-hand phrase referred to the assaults on the Mohammedan Moors (as they were called then) in the south-western quadrant by elements of the Sinhalese population (Roberts 1981). Amidst the complex processes that promoted this outbreak let me isolate a particular factor: a critical force inspiring the attacks was the incitement by those whom I have referred to as "stirrers" (Kannangara 1984; Roberts 1981; 1994a).
The outbreak of the July 1983 pogrom against Tamils living in the south-western and central regions of Lanka encouraged scholars to redefine such events as "pogroms." On this occasion too, anecdotal testimony from friends and the article by Valli Kanapathypillai (1990) indicate that incitement by a diverse body of chauvinist stirrers was one factor behind a campaign that legitimised the terror wrought by depicting these activities as acts that would "teach Tamils a lesson."
Dwelling on some anecdotal tales I was motivated in the 1990s to pen a literary essay of protest against the horrendous acts of July 1983: "The Agony and Ecstasy of a Pogrom: Southern Lanka, July 1983," This article was written during a lonely sojourn in Charlottesville, Virginia where my isolation promoted reflexivity. Central to this intervention was the deployment of two horrifying photographs extracted from the Tamil Times. In subsequent years I discovered that these images had been captured by a brave cameraman, Chandragupta Amarasinghe, who supplied me with better copies and clarified details about the mayhem around Borella Junction that 24th/25th night in July (Roberts 1994b, 2003).
These engagements with ethnic extremism and zealotry encouraged me to seek comparative material on race riots in USA and pogroms in eastern Europe; while a Research Fellowship at Teen Murthi enabled me to spend four months in Delhi in 1995 delving into "communal violence" in India -mostly attacks on the Muslims by Hindus, but also the attacks on Sikhs in 1984 after Indira Gandhi was assassinated (Roberts 2010a).
During this work I dwelt on the possibility of creating composite picture of a typical riot-pattern, a constellation which I would set out in order to provoke readers and governments into reflective counter-action. Central to such a purpose was the deployment of photographic imagery of the type Amarasinghe, namely, pictures that horrify and reveal man's inhumanity towards man. My reasoning was that it is far more difficult for people to transfer horrendous images into the nether regions of the mind in contrast with prose reports on violence.
Thus motivated, I even approached a German NGO in Colombo with this idea. I got nowhere and confess that my efforts in this direction were not sustained. However weak my endeavors, it would seem that the NGO world of the 1990s did not possess the type of interest we have seen in recent times.
From this experience I find it ironic that visual imagery, whether You Tube videos, still photographs or documentaries, have been so powerful in the moral storm about "war crimes" (a controversial concept as it is) in both Sri Lanka and elsewhere. The controversial apotheosis of this power of imagery has been the Channel 4 video presented by Jon Snow which bears the title "Killing Fields."
Killing Fields cannot, however, be comprehended without attentiveness to one of the principal forces behind some of the terrifying footage deployed within it, namely, the LTTE and its many arms abroad. Such investigative work must begin with awareness of the degree to which the Tiger leadership invested in pictorial modalities in their propaganda and training programmes from very early on. The LTTE set up two-person video teams within a department that has been called "The Truth Tigers" to film specific operations (Journeyman Pictures 2002). Their video work supplemented the LTTE investments in street theatre, radio, newspapers et cetera. The innovative character of the LTTE's diverse means of presenting their liberation struggle has to be grasped by anyone reviewing the present propaganda war. In their heyday the LTTE's use of pandals, buntings, poster art, billboards et cetera was quite phenomenal. The most pronounced moment in such endeavours occurred in the week leading up to Maveerar Nal at 6.05 pm on 27th November every year (Roberts 2005) - a process of grieving, celebration and dedication that occurred in all the major cities in the West beside the terrain embraced by the de facto state of Thamililam from 1990 to 2007.
Pictorial imagery was a major dimension of the reportage and propaganda in such LTTE web sites as Tamilnet.com and TamilCanadian.com. I was taken in once by a Tamil supporter who sent me a photograph of the corpses produced by the suicide bomb attack that killed Janaka Perera in Anuradhapura as proof of killings caused by shelling in the Vanni pocket in 2009 (see my illustrative entry in Senaratne2011). One must therefore attend to the possibility that some video footage of alleged government atrocities was manufactured in 2008 as the LTTE realised that it was on the back foot. Grapevine information indicates that Channel 4 was working secretly in LTTE territory from 2007 or 2008 and that Nick Paton Walsh entered Sri Lanka to complete the final phase of this cooperation; but was deemed suspect and unceremoniously turfed out by the Sri Lankan government in May 2009 - a humiliating outcome which added revenge to the other motivations promoting Channel 4s commitment to the Tiger cause and its targeting of the Sri Lankan government for a public hanging.
In early 2009, as we know, the Sri Lankan government was subject to pressure from some Western governments, UN agencies and INGOs demanding that they resort to a unilateral ceasefire in order to reduce the s civilian death toll. As Simon Jenkins indicated in his strictures on David Miliband's grandstanding on several fronts in that period: "in Sri Lanka a rudimentary study of the past three months of fighting would have told Miliband that a ceasefire would be pro-Tamil, not just "pro-humanitarian" (2009).This was precisely the position I pressed then in criticising Hilary Clinton and other world leaders fortheir simpleton approach, one that encouraged the LTTE to use the impending general elections in mid-May in India as well as human rights vocabulary as a foundation for their Machiavellian policy of using the Tamil population of Thamililamas a buffer and bargaining chip to gain some bolt-hole (also see Tekwani 2011).
Since then, after the demise of the LTTE military regime, the campaign to crucify the Sri Lankan state has been promoted by processes that I do not have the expertise to decipher, but which can be treated as an alliance of sorts between five categories of actors. These are
A. The LTTE's various international arms -- bolstered now by new recruits among Tamil migrants stirred by the emotional heat of 2009.
B. UN, INGO and NGO agencies directed for the most part by human rights discourse and the either/or epistemology that governs the currents of secular fundamentalism that are so vibrant now in Western countries.
C. The hidden agendas (and double standards) of several Western states as well as the UN agencies in their pockets.
D. The sensationalist tendencies of several media outlets in the West who thrive on "churnalism," encouraged as they are by a principled hostility to the intimidation of their colleagues in Sri Lanka during the period 2006-09.
E. The activities of several Sri Lankan journalists and cameramen who were forced to flee their land in 2007-09 as a result of the assassinations and threats that surrounded those with liberal or Left inclinations. On a priori grounds one can say that ideology, motives of vengeance and occasionally that of profit combined to encourage such individuals to supply Channel 4 and other Western media outlets with some of the wherewithal to cane the government. In some ways this could be seen as poetic justice; but the issue remains whether some of the lynching evidence is fabricated and thus contrary to the moral norms of others in the alliance as well as the concept of justice via truth.
II
When Channel Four chose the title of "Killing Fields" for its documentary of 2011,it cleverly deployed a metaphor from the Pol Pot era as a sensational sales pitch to support its highly weighted and partisan reading of the last stages of Eelam War IV, when the LTTE and its Tamil hostages and supporters were caged into what can be called the "Vanni Pocket." It used the visual power of film juxtaposed with interviews in a blitzkrieg compilation that reverberated throughout the Western world and persuaded many non-partisan viewers -- from Michael Atherton to Peter Roebuck --that something awful happened in the north eastern corners of the Vanni. That such individuals were persuaded is proof of visual power when it is cleverly compiled - though in my view it is also indicative of some measure of credulity and some unfamiliarity with the details of the context among those so swayed. The shortcomings of a great deal of the Channel 4 film footage have now been outlined in several productions. The most revealing is the visual power-point documentary assembled by a Canadian collective associated with the Sri Lankan government who incorporated Siri Hewavitharana's visual decoding analysis (2011a, 2011b) within their product. The most thorough textual criticism is that presented by a media outfit marshaled by the Ministry of Defence: "Appalling Journalism. Jon Snow and Channel 4 News on Sri Lanka."
Both sources above may immediately be viewed as tainted by those hostile to the Sri Lankan state. However, Godfrey Gunatilleka's recent summary of the findings of a Marga team supports their thrusts in providing a measured, yet severe, set of strictures on the yardsticks directing both Ban Ki-Moon's Darusman Panel and the Channel 4 documentary. There are also useful insights in the remarks of such independent analysts as Shyam Tekwani (2011) and Kalana Senaratne (2011). Because I was familiar with the LTTE's capacities in using pictorial and video material, I surveyed the first airing of the open-air execution scenes by Channel 4 in August 2009 with suspicion. These doubts became conviction when I read Siri Hewavitharana's forensic analysis in article form in the Asian Tribune and local newspapers immediately afterwards (see Rajasingham 2010 for a subsequent overview). I reached this conclusion because Hewavitharana's decoding report seemed to be the work of a technologist rather than a literary giant - a technologist who knew his onions. The time discrepancy between the audio and visual moments in one execution scene highlighted by Hewavitharana, and his insistence that this was video footage rather than the work of a mobile phone (as a claimed by Channel 4), seemed clinching arguments. This incisive work has now, in 2011, been incorporated in power-point documents.
When this execution scene was subsequently incorporated within Killing Fields in mid-2011, my suspicions increased -- the more so because Killing Fields moved on in rapid blitzkrieg fashion to depict other gory scenes including one series where the video-documentary depicted a terrified man tied to a tree and subject to torture, with the coup de grace for the message being an image of his bloodied corpse at the conclusion of this segment.
This latter series of images aroused my scepticism immediately. The doubts did not arise from any faith in the goodness of the SL Army. Anyone with experience of war, whether vicariously or in real time, knows that frontline soldiers sometimes execute captured adversaries. It is well-known that during the last months of World War Two Allied troops killed soldiers of the Wehrmacht (German army) who had killed some of their comrades in the course of continued resistance that everyone knew to be futile. The Sri Lankan wars of the last 30 years have been littered with atrocities from both sides. The atrocities in the Eastern Province in 1990 were particularly extensive. After the LTTE executed over 600 policemen Sinhalese and Muslim who had surrendered in June 1990 [Tamil policemen being spared], the SL army indulged in massacres at Kokkadichcholaiand other places in 1990-91. If one wanted "Srebenica" moments, it is here that the best examples can be located.
However, the Channel 4 footage simply smelled "fake" because it purported to convey events occurring in the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2008-09.During that phase the SL armed forces were not only well kitted, but were in command of the situation and had taken control of many buildings in the northern Vanni, especially in the town of Kilinochchi, which had been abandoned by the LTTE once Paranthan fell in late December 2008. SL army torturing would, in my speculative reasoning, have occurred within closed doors. On this ground I thought then that this set of images indicated a killing of a dissident or deserter by the LTTE, acts which were frequent in Thamililam from 1990 through to 2009 and which have been documented over the years by the UTHR collective; and which are even stressed by Gordon Weiss himself in The Cage (2011: 69, 141-42).
The doubts were subsequently supported by the insights offered by the Tamil dissident, Noel Nadesan: "I was told by sources in the Vanni that this was an LTTE operation and [that these] pictures were taken for propaganda purposes by LTTE. Have a close look and you will find among the so-called soldiers a man in slippers. Sri Lankan soldiers never go about in slippers when they go out on operations. "Nadesan is referring to operations in the late 2000s and told me that his sources are former LTTE functionaries associated with its propaganda wings. He is not free to name them, so this evidence is open to sceptical responses from those who believe the Channel 4 version of this visual story.
Nevertheless, I insist that there is reasonable ground to conjecture that this segment of Killing Fields is a LTTE production developed as part of its propaganda operations in late 2008. The three reasons for this verdict are (a) the resort to open-air torture and execution with the use of a tree as a stanchion; (b) the presence of a soldier wearing slippers; and (c) information garnered by Nadesan from well-placed sources within the LTTE camp. Such threads do not, of course, enable a definitive verdict; but they are strongly indicative. At the very least they indicate that the jury should remain out on any conclusion about the perpetrators of this atrocity.
It is therefore of some significance that one photograph from this set of concoctions by the LTTE should turn up in the marquee images fronting - yes fronting -- the web site maintained by Gordon Weiss with the caption: "Torturing a Victim, Northern Sri Lanka, 2009."
This same image, cropped even tighter, is reproduced in his The Cage with the following description: "One of a series of photos, video, and testimony from Sinhalese soldiers that gradually emerged after the war. This one shows a man thought to be a captured Tamil Tiger fighter being tortured. Other photos in the sequence show him being bludgeoned to death." In the credits for his illustrations inserted at the head of the book we are told that this image is from the "author's own collection."
www.defence.lk">
From The Cage
We are not told where Weiss derived this particular selection from the video sequence. But BEWARE. This image has been cropped by someone, presumably by whoever delivered the photograph to Weiss. But study the same image reproduced by Rajiva Wijesinha after he received it from ABC when he challenged them about their reportage on the war in May 2011. This is presumably a replication extracted from the Channel Four documentary.
www.defence.lk">
Take careful note: here we see at least one soldier with slippers, an indication, albeit not definitively, that the torturers and killers were probably
Tiger personnel if we can rely on Nadesan's sources. Thus, someone has cropped the tell-tale giveaway out of the public's vision when circulating the still image as single frame for the benefit of those waiting in the wings to accept charges of governmental war crimes. Weiss appears to have been an "innocent" taken in by this particular footage [though one should also attend to the 'minor' narrowing of frame in his book version of the image in comparison with that on his web-page].
Weiss has a reputation of being an idealist and his moral passion may suggest that he is not the type of person who would crop a photograph. However, his campaign against human rights abuses directed at both parties in the conflict has not been even-handed. There are several moments where his representations let the LTTE off the hook. A separate essay is called for if one is to evaluate the degree of partiality and integrity displayed in recent years by Gordon Weiss.
Tekwani has already indicated that "Weiss' studied conclusion" in The Cage to the effect that the war was justified "is at variance with his narrative style and choice of words, which draw heavily on his moral repugnance of the Rajapaksa victory". From my location in Australia what demands emphasis is the cumulative impact of developments arising from the composition and publication of The Cage by Picador for Macmillan Australia. Note that in a deliberate move the book was launched in Sydney on 19th May 2011, a day of grieving in the Tamil nationalist firmament.
In participating actively in the marketing of this book, it would seem that, from late 2010 if not earlier, Gordon Weiss has been drawn increasingly closer to the networks of the Tamil Australian lobby associated with the LTTE in the past and with the politics of the Global Tamil Forum's radical arms today.
The importance which Weiss himself has attached to the photograph under scrutiny indicates that he accepts the presentation of this visual evidence as a case of government soldiers' torturing Tamils. Even if his hand has not carried out the excision of tell-tale evidence undermining such a verdict, his ability to evaluate data is called into question. At the very least he has been sucked into distortion by others in his circuit, others working mala fide.
ADDENDUM
I have had two long conversations with Siri Hewavitharana in Sydney early in January. As far as I could judge from these chats, Hewavitharana is not a Sinhala ultra of the type associated with SPUR in Australia. Quite incidentally his reference to visits to Adelaide to buy wine from one particular shop indicated a background of affluence - a comforting thought in the sense that he does not require big bucks from any state agency. However, the most central impression that I gathered was that this is a man with phenomenal technical knowledge.
I insisted on receiving his c. v. and this document supports what was self-evident in the course of our conversation. Siri Hewavitharana is a professional broadcasting engineer in broadcast and satellite display, cable design and operations, content platforms DRM and STB's, video broadcasting and IPTV. He seems to be at the cutting edge in this field and since September 2008 has held the post of Executive Director, IPTV Systems, after a career history of senior positions with Huawei Technology, IPTV, Cisco, Optus Vision et cetera. He founded the company Applied Video System in 1984 in UK, but his millionaire status burst with the financial bubble of 1987 and he was eventually enticed to Australia by Kerry Packer as Head of Visual Communication for OTC Research and Developmentin 1989.
His professional status was such that in 2009 the US Defence Department sent him a copy of the first video deployed by Channel 4 that year. By an act of the gods this original video footage contained meta-data which gave the game away and indicated, for one, that it was not generated by a mobile phone-- it is for this reason that Channel 4 has never made its video footage public. He immediately approached Prabath Sahabandu, Editor of The Island, with his conclusions. That is how his report eventually ended up as a semi-official rebuttal of Channel 4 in the public realm.
He warned the government representatives that the defects in this video version would be covered up once his report was out. It so transpired. New improved versions of the open-air execution segment appeared in 2011, one reaching the UN via Journalists for Democracy and the other, with additional footage, being incorporated within Killing Fields. These versions too have been analysed to reveal defects. The availability of the original video with meta-data has been of critical importance in these acts of revelation. Killing Fields also contains frames that are still-images stitched together in clever fashion, inclusive of one segment that is "totally fake" in Hewavitharana's words.
His "Technical Analysis of Channel 4 killing fields documentary" is now included in power-point presentations that are within the public realm (Lankaweb 2011 and Technical Analysis 2011) and should be essential viewing for everyone who is reviewing this topic. This report is indirectly supported in a separate study by Professor Yfantis, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nevada, who was commissioned by the LLRC. His "mathematical analysis" of blood in the 3GP videos revealed that "it was not real blood," but either "water with red dye" or "digitally constructed ... video blood." This directed Yfantis to the overall view that killing Fields is "a very deliberate and orchestrated video" (LLRC, 2011, chap.4: 372).
What these findings say of the morality guiding Channel Four and Jon Snow is beyond words. There is even some suggestion that elements of the British Foreign Office had a role in this 'handiwork' because Channel 4 had sought governmental aid in a situation of financial crisis in 2008/09; but this must be treated as unverified gossip unless wikileaks or other material provides evidence in this direction.
If people wish to dismiss the opinions expressed by Hewavitharana and Yfantis simply because they have been expressed through agencies associated with the Sri Lankan government, they should attend to Shyam Tekwani's depiction (2011) of Killing Fields as "an effort to sensationalise and shock with carefully selected and edited footage," and his further observations to the effect that (a) for this reason, "the documentary weakens its case and invites an investigation into its own credibility and accountability to journalistic norms"; and that (b) "the volume of testimony it uses as evidence is not enormous and most of it is derived from leading questions."
-The Ministry of Defence bears no responsibility for the ideas and opinion expressed by the numerous contributors to the “Opinion Page” of this web site-

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/18/news31.asp

Over 1,930 sq. kms cleared of landmines in North

An area exceeding 1,934 out of 2,061 square kilometres of lands in the North which were dotted with land mines and booby traps have been cleared by the end of 2011 and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has given specific directives to expedite the clearing of the remaining 126 square kilometres.
According to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, a contingent of 3,600 persons who are trained in mine clearing are involved in the clearance of remaining lands and they are mainly from the humanitarian demining unit of the Sri Lanka Army and other foreign and local organizations.
Mine clearance activities are closely monitored by the Humanitarian Mines Clearance Centre which is functioning under the Economic Development Ministry.
More than 759,138 landmines, booby traps and unexploded devices have been recovered by the deminers so far.
An Economic Development Ministry official added that the Government has brought down more than 39 demining machines to the country. The Humanitarian Demining unit of Sri Lanka Army's Engineering Corps is playing key role in the mine clearance.
In addition to six foreign organizations, two national organizations are involved in the mine clearance in the North.
The government had to face impediment to resettle over 300,000 people who were displaced by terrorist atrocities in the North due to lands dotted with mines and booby traps.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/18/news01.asp

LLRC report, basis for reconciliation - Indian External Affairs Minister
Chaminda PERERA

The Indian government yesterday said that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has many constructive recommendations which would lead to genuine national reconciliation.
Addressing the media in Colombo visiting Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that Sri Lanka government is committed to implement the LLRC recommendations.
He said that the efforts that were taken to end the three-decades conflict should now be employed towards the creation of genuine reconciliation and India is always ready to assist Sri Lanka in this respect too.
“We are ready to help in whatever way we can in a spirit of cooperation and goodwill” , he added.
Krishna said that the Sri Lankan government has on many occasions conveyed to India that it would work for a lasting solution based on the 13th Amendment.
He said that India expects the discussion between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would pave way for the settlement of the ethnic issue.
Krishna added that President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured him that he would be committed to a settlement based on the 13 amendment and plus approach when he raised the issue with him yesterday morning. Touching on the fishermen’s issue, the visiting Foreign Minister added that no force should be used on fishermen.
He said that the fishermen’s issues need to be addressed with utmost care and they should be treated in a humane manner.
Meanwhile, an Indian High Commission press release quoted Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna as saying at the media interaction:
“I am pleased to be in Sri Lanka again. At the outset, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Minister Prof. Peiris and the Sri Lankan Government for the warm hospitality extended to me and to my delegation.
“Earlier, I had the opportunity to call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa. We had a useful exchange of views on ways to take the bilateral relationship forward. With Minister Peiris, we had the opportunity to review progress in various areas, including trade, services and investment, development cooperation, science and technology, culture and education. I am satisfied that the projects under our development partnership have progressed well since my last visit.
“Minister Peiris and I have just signed a MoU specifying the modalities for the next phase of the housing project being implemented with India’s assistance of about 260 million US Dollars. This MoU involves the construction of 49,000 houses, out of a total of 50,000 houses. As you know, the Pilot Project for construction of the first 1000 houses is in an advanced stage of completion. During my visit to Jaffna tomorrow, I would be handing over the first lot of these houses to the beneficiaries.
“We also signed MoUs for Cooperation in the Field of Agriculture and for Cooperation between the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.
“Our development assistance projects are entirely based on the priorities set by the government and the people of Sri Lanka. The main themes are connectivity, housing, health, education, livelihood restoration and economic revival. I would be visiting Kilinochchi tomorrow, to handover medical equipment to the District General Hospital, and also reopen schools we had helped repair. As a token gesture, we are also providing 10,000 bicycles to IDPs in the Northern Province.
“I am happy to note that our bilateral trade in goods would touch the 5 billion US Dollar mark. India is also a leading player in Sri Lanka, as far as investments and tourist arrivals are concerned. To sustain this positive momentum in our trade and economic relations and take it to the next level, it is necessary to finalize a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation.
“India is committed to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. It is our hope that the vision and leadership that resulted in an end to armed conflict will now be employed in the quest for a genuine political reconciliation.
We look forward to progress in the ongoing dialogue process, in order to address this issue in a timely manner. We will continue to work with the government of Sri Lanka, and help in whatever way we can, to take this process forward, in a spirit of partnership and cooperation.
“We have noted the many constructive recommendations contained in the recently-released report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
These recommendations, when implemented, would mark a major step forward in the process of genuine national reconciliation, to which the Sri Lankan government is committed. Sri Lanka must seize this opportunity.
The government of Sri Lanka has on many occasions conveyed to us its commitment to move towards a political settlement based on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and building on it, so as to achieve meaningful devolution of powers.
We look forward to an expeditious and constructive approach to the dialogue process. We believe that continuation of the dialogue between the Government and the TNA would pave the way for political settlement, including under the rubric of the Parliamentary Select Committee.
“I discussed this matter with President Rajapaksa this morning. The President assured me that he stands by his commitment to pursuing the 13th Amendment plus approach.”

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20120114_01

Gotabaya pulls no punches on the 'Diaspora' threat
(By Lucien Rajakarunanayake)

The postage stamp fraud of the pro-LTTE expatriates in the West has straddled the Atlantic with Canada too discovering that 'Diaspora Tamils' there have resorted to this method of spreading pro-separatist terrorist propaganda via the national postal service. What was exposed in France and caused much embarrassment to the French authorities has caused similar problems for Canada Post too. Both countries have announced that they will be more vigilant about attempts to abuse their postal service for the purposes of the LTTE.
Far reaching as this pro-LTTE postage stamp fraud is, it is only the serrated edge of much wider operations by the expatriate Tamil groups in the West to who form the rump of the LTTE's global establishment, as best described by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in his probing analysis of 'Future Challenges to National Security in Sri Lanka', in the lecture earlier this week, organized by Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited.
The Defence Secretary was very clear on the possibility of the re-emergence of the LTTE in Sri Lanka, as LTTE sympathizers abroad are still struggling to achieve the LTTE's separatist ideology in the country. He explained that although the LTTE's military defeat in May 2009... eliminated the primary obstacle to Sri Lanka's future prospects and brought back a long overdue sense of peace and stability to our people, it is vital that we do not take any of this for granted. Sri Lanka still has enemies, and they are still at work to bring back disharmony and conflict to our nation, he said.
Human rights violations
While the pro-LTTE lobbyists in the human rights fraternity and sections of the Western media seek to hide all the human rights violations, brutality and outright savagery of the LTTE in its terrorist operations until the very last days of its effort to establish a separate Eelam in a part of Sri Lanka, Mr. Rajapaksa made it clear that the first threat to consider today is the on-going activities of LTTE linked organizations outside Sri Lanka. Despite the military defeat of the LTTE and the elimination of its top leadership two and a half years ago, the rump of the LTTE's global establishment is still active, described as ex-LTTE cadres, pro-LTTE activists and LTTE sympathizers still operating in various guises through various groups in many countries around the world.




Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa addressing a public lecture on ‘Future Challenges to National Security in Sri Lanka’ organized by Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited held on January 10. Picture by Sulochana Gamage




The Defence Secretary dwelt at length on key areas of importance on future challenges to national security which he identified as: the reorganization of the LTTE in the international arena; the possible re-emergence of terrorism within Sri Lanka; the efforts by some to take Sri Lanka's internal issues before international bodies; the challenges posed by the regional geopolitical situation; and the possibility of creating instability within Sri Lanka through indirect means.
He explained that national security remained a critical issue, despite Sri Lanka being one of the most stable and secure countries in the Asian region, showing that the defeat of the LTTE militarily lifted the veil of fear that hung over daily life and impacted each and every Sri Lankan for a generation and eliminated the primary obstacle to Sri Lanka's future prospects, bringing back a long overdue sense of peace and stability to the people. However, it was vital that we do not take any of this for granted. "Sri Lanka still has enemies, and they are still at work to bring back disharmony and conflict to our nation," he said.
National security
In a detailed analysis of what took place in the ranks of the LTTE after the death of Prabhakaran and the rout of the group militarily in Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa showed the emergence of breakaway factions and particularly one - the KP faction - that sought to achieve the LTTE's goals through democratic means, and the other - Nediyawan faction - that was committed to achieving their objectives only by following the violent ideology of Prabhakaran.
The Defence Secretary placed before his audience the several organizations that are now ranged against Sri Lanka, posing a clear threat to national security. He began with the so-called 'Government in Exile' led by Rudrakumaran, which has styled itself as the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), and through this means seeks to present itself as a liberation movement, taking a leaf from several important and genuine liberation movements in the world, that has similar 'governments in exile'. Its strategy is to lobby foreign governments to support its campaign for a separate state in Sri Lanka, as the LTTE and Prabhakaran wanted, and for that purpose to encourage the resumption of direct struggles within Sri Lanka.
International groups
The talk covered the activities of many other groups that have emerged to carry the torch of the LTTE, prominent among them being the British Tamils Forum (BTF) that later became the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), led by a cassock clad preacher of hatred and terror in the form of Fr. Emmanuel once hailed by Prabhakaran as "a freedom fighter who has given leadership to a movement committed to setting up the homeland to Tamil Eelam". There was the note of necessary caution about the operations of the GTF because Father Emmanuel has been engaged in a propaganda campaign against Sri Lanka for many years, targeting Tamil expatriates, foreign governments and international organizations. Under his guidance, the GTF has successfully won over a number of politicians from various political parties in European countries as well as the United States, Australia, Canada and India to support the separatist cause. In addition, the GTF and the BTF have courted officials within international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union and various non-governmental organizations to obtain their support, Rajapaksa explained. He also drew attention to the Nediyawan's group, known as The Tamil Eelam People's Assembly or the Tamil National Council that has been working with other international groups to promote the separatist cause in many parts of the world. This group has control over most of the assets of the LTTE's international organization, and also at present controls the more than 350 Tamil schools that function in Europe supposedly for the promotion of Tamil language and culture. In reality, these schools' aim to inculcate separatist sentiments and hatred towards the Sinhalese amongst second and third generation Tamils living abroad.
The Defence Secretary explained that the on-going indoctrination of the students in these schools is a matter of grave concern, affecting a significant number of children all over Europe. These LTTE-linked Tamil schools have a student population of approximately 6,500 in Germany, 5,800 in Switzerland, 5,000 in France and nearly 2,000 more in the rest of Europe.
While these are large numbers, it was revealing to learn that a proportion of the school fees charged from these students is directed into the coffers of LTTE-linked organizations. So is the income generated from events organized by these schools. There was a clear note of warning when he explained that during the war, these schools functioned as a selection ground for future terrorists. "In certain schools, the administration made arrangements for batches of students to undergo military training in the Vanni. Some of these students fought against the Security Forces during the Humanitarian Operation. Others returned to their countries and continue to work towards the separatist objective from outside Sri Lanka", Rajapaksa explained.
Brighter future
The speaker was as blunt as he could be and pulled no punches when it was necessary to expose the efforts of so-called peace-makers at the final stages of the battle to defeat the LTTE, and the new champions of accountability by Sri Lanka for having successfully defeated the world's most ruthless terrorist organization. The text of his speech is necessary reading for those who wish to obtain a much clearer view of the actualities in Sri Lanka in the post-conflict period, and the dangers it faces from the many forces ranged against it abroad, whose strategy of attempting to destabilize Sri Lanka, and possibly bring it back to the tragedy of armed conflict, is also well organized to cover up all the inhumanity and brutality of the LTTE that is being wholly ignored by the human rights fraternity, whether it is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and so many other Western pundits who are ready to turn a blind eye to all the terror of the LTTE. Similarly, it is must reading for those who seek to counter the charges by these hardly veiled apologists for the LTTE.
The danger faced was clearly seen in the necessity for Sri Lanka not to attend the 100th anniversary celebrations of the African National Congress, due to the presence there of the TGTE as an invitee.
The South Africans with memories their past struggles against apartheid may have been misled by the label of a 'Government in Exile', but a little more study would have told them the truth about these groups masquerading as 'liberators'. Some study would also have shown them how much the government and people of Sri Lanka supported the anti-apartheid struggle of the African people, through all the years of brutality by the apartheid regime. But this is the reality of the dangers from the pro-LTTTE lobbyists, as so well shown by the speaker.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's concluding words summed up well the situation for Sri Lanka today. "We must face reality and guard against all eventualities. It is of vital importance for all of us to protect the peace that has been regained after so long and at such cost. We must stand firm and not allow anyone to drive this country back to the state it was in during the past 30 years. As a nation, Sri Lanka has had more than its fair share of suffering. We must all work together to put the past behind us, and work towards a brighter future for this nation and all her people. That will be the best defence against those who seek to oppose us. Let us all work together to make this better future a reality."
Courtesy : Daily News

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/01/15/sec03.asp

Tigers squeezed the Tamils dry - Ambassador Buddhi Athauda

By Shanika SRIYANANDA
Channel 4 video is purely an emotional video made by the Tiger propaganda machine and the allegations in this are not credible enough to claim even in the basic check list for war crime charges, levelled at Sri Lanka, this was the contention expressed by the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Netherlands Buddhi Athauda.Based in the Hague, where the International Court of Justice,International Criminal Court and Court of Arbitration are located the Ambassador said the Dutch government was not taking a serious view about unfound war crimes charges against Sri Lanka.
He said the Netherlands, is not a breeding ground for Tiger terrorism and will not permit Tamils to violate Dutch law and schools where LTTE ideology is propagated are under scrunity by the Dutch government.
The Ambassador was of the view that Tamils could not claim that they were suffering in Sri Lanka as they had everything they needed to lead peaceful lives and their future was secure.“Sri Lanka is doing it better and faster than some of the Western countries, when they faced crises.
Our recovery is now in full swing”, he said in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer .The Ambassador said except for a few hardcore Tigers who intend to revive the LTTE, Tamils abroad who handled the Tiger finances, under fictitious names were now fighting to own a chunk of this ill gotten money so that they could now lead comfortable lives and they were not interested in Eelam anymore.
Being a satellite communication expert, who was one time Head of Asia of the Iridium LLC, the first company in the world to offer satellite mobile phones, Athauda said now the time has come for all Sri Lankans to become economic warriors and join the country’s economic development in the post conflict era.
Exploring opportunities to revive the century-old trade ties between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, Ambassador Athauda predicts of Sri Lanka becoming South Asia’s hub for trade once again.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
Q: What is your comment about support from the Tamil diaspora in the Netherlands in the country’s development?
A: The Netherlands is going through a lot of change, economically and politically as the European Union is struggling with their economy.
Therefore, there are reasons for them to look for better opportunities.
From the diplomatic point of view, they are changing their objectives and how they want to get about it. They are cutting down foreign missions to reduce capacity. For example they are reducing numbers in South America.
As a policy they want to focus on Asia. They want to focus on countries that are growing.
Therefore, obviously China, India, Sri Lanka will be in their radar. Down the road, it would be easier for Sri Lankans to work with the Netherlands because not only the business community has realised that they need to come to Asia for greater growth opportunities but also the Dutch government has realised that its better to put foreign aid and donations towards economic stimulation of their country. in other words, a few years ago they gave small donations of charity work like fixing lamp posts and bridges, but now they don’t believe in this approach, as they don’t have any returns.
Their contention is that it’s better to stimulate their economy.
They need more fish for consumption and if they come to Sri Lanka and help our fishing industry where fish will end up on their tables and that way their people are making money from local fish and then we get the opportunity to sell Sri Lankan fish.
I pointed this out with the Netherlands Foreign Minister and he said this is music to his ears.
Many years ago they had ambassadors during their three-year tenure they had no opportunity to meet the Netherlands Foreign Ministers. but now Asian ambassadors are invited for discussions with the FM and it is a different story now.
This is good news and on top of that Sri Lanka appeals to the Netherlands. I recently had a breakfast series with the business community, tour operators and journalists and it was in the newspapers. here you can see how news worthy we are?
This doesn’t happen automatically. It is almost like selling a new product. we have meticulously calculated and planned all about Sri Lanka and then executed it. We see great results and we are very proud about the achievements.
We have several methods. one is to select Tamil leaders and give them exposure.
Therefore let them tell the good news to their community. We are also going to start a Sri Lanka TV channel to Europe for Sri Lankans to watch day-to-day Sri Lankan news.
I think it is very important otherwise pro-LTTE media channels are dominating the news and Tamil children are brain washed.
They have a one-sided story and we are determined to give the other-side so they can decide for themselves.
Q: How active is the Tamil diaspora in the Netherlands?
A: I want to say that there is no such section known as pro-Tiger Tamil diaspora. The LTTE itself has broken into several sections.
What is happening now is that the LTTE’s front organisations and those who handled the Tiger finances, buildings, vehicles and ships, which were under different people are fighting to figure out the wealth and everyone wants to have a share.
But core Tiger operators want to revive the organisation but they cannot give a convincing case to the majority of the Tamil diaspora on how to move forward because President Mahinda Rajapaksa has out-smarted all these people.
They can’t say Tamils are suffering in Sri Lanka anymore.
Q: Though you say that there is no strong footing for pro-Tigers in the Netherlands, there were reports that a fear psychosis was created among Tamils in the Netherlands by pro-LTTE elements. What do you have to say?
A: I don’t think that they could create a fear psychosis as they now know the reality. The message they are trying to give is that Sri Lanka is yet not safe.
Tamils who are here are aware of the reality. There are two different things they try to pitch to the Tamil community and what the Tamil community already know.
There are hardcore Tamils who aspire for this cause. They are tired of the Tiger.
Q: Recently the Dutch Courts came hard on pro-LTTEers and punished some hardcore LTTEers including LTTE’ international accountant Ramachandran.
What was the stance of the Dutch government? What about the schools they run to propagate Tiger ideology?
A: Yes, five of them are now in prison.
The Dutch government is very clear about their decision and will not allow them to violate Dutch law and will be not a ground breeding terrorism. The Dutch government will investigate these school and have already made an official announcement. If a violates Dutch laws and teach violence to they will be severely dealt with.
Q: What action has been taken against some pro-Tiger organisations like the Tamil Youth Organisation and Dutch Tamil Art and Cultural Organisation.
A: Well, anybody can register a non-profit organisation, but they must show their objectives to be registered.
If they have not manage funds or have miss-used funds or violate regulations they will track them down and will be punished.
Q: The Netherlands was a safe haven for LTTEers at one time, what action has the embassy taken to convince the Dutch government that it should not harbour terrorism?
A: It is really the big picture. The Tigers had a huge propaganda machine in Europe and previous Lankans government didn’t have such a large propaganda arm there. For over 20 years they had only the LTTE story. It was simple for me and I told them the real story and the truth has now come out.
Q: What was the response from the Dutch for the alleged war crimes charges on Channel 4?
A: The Channel 4 video is an emotional video made by an interested party. This video was never shown in any of the State television channels.
It was during the lawsuit against Tiger fund raisers that the defending attorney tried to use the Tiger video as propaganda material for publicity.
I’m in the Hague and this is where the in International Court of Justice International Criminal Court and Court of Arbitration are situated. There is nothing to show as crimes even in the basic check list regarding the Channel 4 video.
There allegation are an emotional card played by the Tigers. The Dutch government is not interested in it.
Q: What are the possibilities for Tamils in the Netherlands to invest in Sri Lanka for the benefit of their own people.
A: They have already started doing it on a small scale. What the LTTE did really damaged the Tamil diaspora economically.
They were forced to give them money even through bank loans.
These Tamils are broke as the Tigers have squeezed them out. They are in debt. Most of the Tamil diaspora have their hearts in Sri Lanka.
They want to put in money to help Tamils in Sri Lanka to get cows, fishing boats or to invest where they can help them to be economically sound.
At the same time discussions are going on in some of the fora.
They cannot invest in mega development projects in the North as there are no rich Tamils in the Netherlands.
Q: One factor is the inefficiency of our foreign mission to implement a well-designed propaganda arm to counter and to convey Sri Lanka’s success story on defeating terrorism. How do you address this issue?
A: I use my expertise of my previous job, where I did global branding. Every person, including the President is a brand. Branding is another facet when we do things. About 400 years ago the Dutch came to Sri Lanka, now we reintroduce Sri Lankan spices once again to the Dutch in a modern way. We developed a seven course meal with Sri Lankan spices. Everybody who came to the food festival said they wanted to go to Sri Lanka.
It is time to think out of the box. Now we want to train Dutch chefs on this seven course menu, which was introduced as the Sri Lankan menu.
The amazing factor regarding Sri lanka is that we don’t have to made up a story, when foreigners come here they are convinced.
All what we need is to do is just tell them the story about Sri Lanka.
That is what I am doing now - promoting business as a tourist destination.
If one makes a report card of each country by putting the achievements in each area, Sri Lanka’s report card will be one of the best as we have good indicators in all areas to show our economy is going from strength to strength.
Pic: Susantha Wijegunasekara