http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2013/04/07/approximately-31029-unexploded-ordnance-recovered/

Approximately 31,029 Unexploded Ordnance Recovered

By Camelia Nathaniel
The Sri Lanka Army recovered approximately, 31029 unexploded ordnance during demining operations carried out since May 2009 in the war affected areas.
The United Nations’ International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action was observed last week.
Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, this day fosters awareness of the mine-action capacities in countries where mines and explosive remnants of war constitute a serious threat to the safety, health and lives of the civilian population, or an impediment to social and economic development. In total, it was suspected that mines had been laid in more than five thousand square kilometres of land in the conflict areas. Demining such a vast area was a very difficult challenge, but the Government unhesitatingly undertook it immediately after the war ended. Many foreign organisations came forward to help including the Danish Demining Group, the Indian Sarvatra Group and the Horizon Group: the UK based Mines Advisory Group, the Australian government and several others. These groups were made responsible for demining various sections of land throughout the North and East. The Sri Lanka Army took on the responsibility of demining the largest area of land, comprising nearly 1,500 square kilometres including most of the densely mined regions.
The Sri Lanka Army was allocated an area of 1,515,615,307 km2 of mined areas to be cleared and of which 1,482,697,595 km2 have been demined from May 2009 to 29 March 2013. During the mine clearing process the army had recovered 49092 anti personnel mines (AP), 240 anti tank mines (AT) and 31029 unexploded ordnance. Of the total area cleared the demining teams had to demine an area of 9,357,479 km2 manually, as machinery could not be used in these areas.
While many local and foreign organisations are involved in clearing of mines in the areas where the 30 year conflict had taken place, Australia is spending $20 million (2.6 billion LKR) over five years to help remove landmines from Sri Lanka and support the efforts of the Sri Lankan Government to make Sri Lanka mine-free by 2020.
Australian High Commissioner Robyn Mudie said Australia is committed to supporting the work of the Sri Lankan Government to rid the country of unexploded landmines. “We are working with the Sri Lankan Government, the United Nations and non-government organisations to make it safe for people to return to their homes and restart their lives,” she added.
Australian funding has already cleared over 74 square kilometres of land in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Jaffna districts. This is around 15 per cent of the total area that has been cleared since 2009 to date.

Opinion:

The HRW report: Unfolding the untold story

by Shenali Waduge

Roads in the North, a pleasure to travel on now.

We will teach you a lesson: Sexual violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces is a 140-page report published on February 22, 2013 detailing 75 cases of alleged rape and sexual abuse committed between 2006 and 2012 in official and secret detention centres throughout Sri Lanka.

The 140-page report gives three accounts out of 75 cases through a six-year period:

The first is of a 31-year-old Tamil woman picked up from her Colombo home by CID officers in November 2011. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that the woman had been taken to the fourth floor of the CID office, denied food and water and the following day photographed, fingerprinted and made to sign a blank sheet of paper. She had been asked to disclose the whereabouts of her husband who was abroad and he was accused of supporting the LTTE.

She had been allegedly beaten by objects, burned with a cigarette, slapped around and beaten with a sand-filled pipe (thankfully, they did not waterboard her!). After this description, she goes on to being raped one night by two men in civilian clothes speaking Sinhala, but is unable to identify them because it was dark.

A vague account in which HRW needs to first prove that she was taken to the CID - it would be quite an embarrassment if the CID can prove that its log books do not have such a woman being interrogated. Moreover, the ICRC is given access to anyone being questioned by the CID and so it is prudent to have the ICRC confirm they knew of this woman being interrogated in November 2011.

Moreover, why was this rape not featured in Geneva in March 2012 given that the incident took place in November 2011 and newsworthy enough for HRW? Moreover, if the questioning was related to terrorism, she has to have been arrested by the TID (Terrorist Investigation Department), not the CID (Criminal Investigation Department).

The next case is that of a 23-year-old male in August 2012 who was taken to a room with four men and tied to a chair and questioned for links to the LTTE. He is alleged to have been stripped and beaten with electric wires, burned with cigarettes and suffocated with a petrol-infused polythene bag and raped on three consecutive occasions and after the rapes, he had confessed to links with the LTTE.

Most former LTTE cadre have been rehabilitated

Children have returned to school

There is no mention of him not being able to see the men, therefore HRW can forward a pencil sketch of the men who had raped this youth plus where he was taken and the general lists of answers that removes the vagueness to this description. The third case given is of another youth, who surrendered before the Security Forces in May 2009 and two officials who held his arms back and another officer who held his penis and inserted metal rods inside and metal balls (as a female, I cannot even imagine such, but wonder who held his legs).

Thankfully, there is a medical report, but that must correspond with evidence of how a male who surrendered to the Army and who should be one of the 11,770 former combatants under the rehabilitation program of the Army should end up overseas. Moreover, with his case being far more dramatic than the first rape of the lady at the CID, why did this rape not make headlines in Geneva 2012 and moreover why did he not feature (even with a blurred face) in the Channel 4 films? Certainly odd!

Of the 75 cases HRW planned to dramatically release, naturally closer to the Geneva 2013 sessions, these three cases deserve the benefit of the doubt, provided that HRW can corroborate each version with proof and ICRC confirmation which ties with the Government’s/Armed Forces’ and police records.

Allegations meant to embarrass every time an international forum or meeting comes up is just in bad taste and now become quite boring for all of us to read given that we know the entire drill - therefore expect annual UN sessions especially the UNHRC sessions to have trailer documentaries, films, panel reports, foreign delegations all leading to another Resolution, and doing their best to get the country’s leaders to compromise the country thinking that would save them from war crime trials!

According to the HRW, the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) dismisses the allegations as “fake” and “pro-LTTE propaganda”. Though there is enough evidence to establish that the LTTE is a master of lies and fabrications, let us give the benefit of the doubt and look at the cases of reports logged by the police.

When Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces saved 297,000 Tamil civilians braving LTTE fire and losing 5,000 Government troops in the process, HRW’s “untold number of rapes of Tamil men and women in custody” includes just 75 cases. Are these 75 cases the supposed to be “widespread rape” that has taken place in Sri Lanka?

Widespread rape is what took place in Rwanda in 1994 when upto 250,000 or more women were raped in three months, or the UN agency estimates of more than 60,000 women raped in Sierra Leone (1991-2002), or the more than 40,000 raped in Liberia (1989-2003), or the 60,000 women raped in former Yugoslavia (1992-1995) and the 200,000 raped in the Congo.

Cases yet to be proved

Sri Lanka’s “alleged” 75 cases are yet to be even proved and only accounts without verification are classified as “widespread” when approximately 295,000 civilians have not accused any soldier of rape of sexual offences nor have any of the 11,770 former combatants most of whom are now reintegrated into society. HRW must understand why some of these allegations are getting more and more difficult to believe. Creating dramas and using the media to the maximum is anyone’s prerogative, but the people of Sri Lanka are a lot wiser and know that our Forces carried out a humanitarian rescue cum military operation. If it provides employment and funds, all these reports can continue to come!

Youth now lead normal lives

During the World War II, all sides of the conflict were accused of mass rapes, but neither of the two courts set up by the victorious Allied countries to prosecute suspected war crimes in Tokyo and Nuremberg recognised the crime of sexual violence. Rape was included in 1993 during the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and ICTY became the first international court to accuse a person guilty of rape as a crime against humanity - that was 60,000 cases of rape!

Leaving aside these unknown, unverified and vague accounts coming forth from international bodies like the HRW against Sri Lanka, there are internal records as well.

The post and pre-conflict scenario cannot ignore the fact that the pre-conflict details must take into account the fact that the LTTE was a terrorist organisation. In January 29, 2004, the HRW published a report on the LTTE’s use of child combatants titled Living in Fear - Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka - quoting from its report “Throughout 2003, thousands of children were deployed as combatants, to commit abuses against civilians, as sex slaves, forced labourers, messengers, informants and servants in continuing and newly erupting conflicts. Children were usually used to perform multiple roles, and girls in particular often acted as combatants as well as being sexually exploited” (please note emphasis on sexually exploited - this is HRW referring to the LTTE not GOSL Forces). Accusing fingers pointed at Sri Lanka must take into account that the LTTE-held areas were out of bounds for the GOSL and Sri Lankan troops. It was from these areas that Tamil children were forcibly taken (former UN officer Benjamin Dix despite 22 months in the UN in Sri Lanka) reveals in a presentation that the schools were empty because the children were forcibly taken away and anyone between 17 and 40 would also be included.

What must also not be forgotten is that the bulk, if not all of these children and women came from Mullaitivu/Kilinochchi or Eastern areas where low-caste Tamils were easy prey. The 11,770 former LTTE combatants would confirm this.

These two districts had zero electricity coverage because the LTTE had blown up the grids, preferring to keep the people in the dark - yes, blind to realising the LTTE were nothing but killers and extortionists.

LTTE crimes whitewashed

It is pointless giving figures recorded during LTTE rule because an organisation that thrives with the gun is unlikely to be divulging any of its crimes in public and they have plenty of “friends” to whitewash those crimes internationally and locally. However, what the Government can prove is that between 2009.05.19 and 2011.12.31, out of a total of 210 cases of rape and sexual offences, only 20 cases have been committed by Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces including police and CDS personnel with cases against these members already in process and under investigation.

However, as against this, between the same period of the survey, 242 rapes and sexual offences have taken place, most of which have been committed by close relatives (28), neighbours(69), as a result of intimate affairs (28) and others (100). Sexual violence has increased in this period, but the perpetrators are not the Armed Forces inspite of the big noise made of their military presence in the North.

The rapes and sexual violence recorded on Tamils have been by their very own and the former GA Mrs. Sukumar will confirm that most of the sexual violence is now taking place because of fathers and uncles raping the young ones. Let’s not create different versions, diverting the truth!

Credibility is of utmost importance for any organisation espousing to be a watchdog for abuses taking place a round the globe. Yet, the ugly reality is that organisations that start off with a noble vision soon realise that to cover the stories taking place a round the world they need people, they need offices, they need contacts, they need to do propaganda and for all this they need funds and when they start taking money from the very sources that contribute to the world’s ills, then they lose their shine and their credibility and once that credibility is compromised, people stop listening to them and so they end up working for their supper, depending on the very people who they ideally should be warning the world about.

Thus, when Amnesty took 50,000 Canadian dollars from a pro-LTTE group, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), they lost credibility. When UK MPs David Miliband (former foreign secretary), Keith Vaz, Virendra Sharma, Simon Hughes, Siobhain McDonagh and a long list of other British MPs speak on behalf of the LTTE and on top of LTTE stages, even though the LTTE is banned in their nation - in our eyes they are a laughing stock.

When people like US Congressman Danny Davis’ trip to Sri Lanka in 2005 is funded by the LTTE, Congressman Brad Sherman, Rush Holt, David Price and even Hillary take and return funds given by pro-LTTE groups - do they have integrity? When Canadian MPs Bob Rae, Jason Kenney and Paul Martin are pro-LTTE speakers, we can but wonder where Canada is heading. When pro-LTTE MPs like Australian John Murphy, Senator Lee Rhiannon whose website is full of anti-Sri Lankan and pro-separatist propaganda even bordering on pro-Tamil Tiger (LTTE), misinformed the House and the Australian public runs contrary to what Julie Bishop MP and Scott Morrison MP - we know an international publicity campaign to smear Sri Lanka is taking place.

Many others holding important offices have spoken on behalf of the LTTE, a banned terrorist organisation, over the years and still continue to do so, which naturally makes one wonder what all these games are about.

As a citizen, and what probably the rest of the citizens all feel, is that Sri Lanka’s terrorism is now no more. The terrorists who surrendered are now rehabilitated, reintegrated and doing something with their lives other than killing. The people that lived in fear throughout the island, especially the Tamil people who were forced to stay with the LTTE and from amongst whom the LTTE grabbed children, women and men to turn into killers can now get on with their lives, schools now have children, teachers have more than chairs to teach, roads that had seen no improvement since the 1980s are now a pleasure to travel on, neglected fertile lands are now lush with vegetation, youth are now going to movies, cycling and hanging out together - anyone visiting the North sees any of the depressing pictures being portrayed just because money speaks. But we do agree on one thing and that is accountability - the Tiger ground force is no more, but its sophisticated tail still remains overseas and is wagging.

The GOSL needs to stop being the nice guy and start a thorough investigation pending legal action on why the LTTE started, how it came to make US$ 300 million profit, who contributed to it.

Here’s where things get complicated because it would include locals, international players including INGOs, NGOs, foreign governments and a host of others. But we now need their names out in the open and links to the LTTE to emerge officially for that’s what we call accountability and from where real reconciliation starts - with an apology to Sri Lanka.

As for the local LTTE supporters - the Government must immediately implement the 6th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution and take punitive action against all according to the law of the country and frame charges for the remaining LTTE combatants for their crimes as well.

Courtesy: defence.lk
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2013/04/07/fea03.asp

Victims of brutal LTTE atrocities...: Evicted Sinhala families resettled in North By Dhaneshi Yatawara A Sinhala family resettled in Bogaswewa Amarasinghe Ranathunga ran a rice mill in the heart of Murunkan until he left the town on December 24, 1984 when the LTTE abducted and tortured him. His National Identity Card says Ranathunga Mudiyanselage Gunapala and villagers called him Ranathunga. “Murunkan is where I was born and for generations we lived in the town,” Ranathunga said remembering the painful memories of his wonderful youth. The rice mill I was running was on a lease from a Muslim friend where workers from all three communities worked together,” Ranathunga said. During the terror time, a Tamil boy working in Ranathunga’s rice mill was killed by the LTTE in the Nannattan area of Mannar accusing him for working and associating with Sinhala people. “The LTTE threatened Sinhala families and distributed letters threatening us to evacuate our homes, lands and businesses. Hitiyoth Maranawa kiwuwa (They said if we stay we will be killed), Ranathunga said. One night Ranathunga was abducted and beaten by the LTTE as he was one of the adamant to stay in their ancestral land. “I still remember who did it. Some I know personally, and some are living in Murunkan and leading an ordinary life” he said. “Receiving a tip-off three police officers came towards our house. As the LTTE was beating me and taking me away they couldn’t do anything and just watched. I knew the police officers. I held my hands up while the terrorists were taking me. The terrorists tried to tie me to the bus stop on the road. They broke in to a shop and finding no rope there, they raided a house and found a rope. They made me kneel and started verbally abusing me. “They asked me what we called the LTTE and I said ‘koti’ (Tigers),” said Ranathunga. The terrorists had started torturing him and young Ranathunga fought back and managed to escape. “I fled to the woods and hid there for 21 days. Those who provided food and water for me were a Tamil family. Then I escaped to Medawachchiya,” Ranathunga said. Paddy harvest being collected in Murunkan A playground in Murunkan on a Sunday evening Ranathunga “There were a large number of Sinhala people living in Murunkan. My entire family was born and bred in Murunkan. Also my wife’s family. Some families living in the Madhu area were murdered by the LTTE in their own houses. We simply couldn’t live there. We could not walk on the roads at night, if we did we were killed. Then with the help of the Army we went towards Medawachchiya and Anuradhapura,” he said. He said even in those areas where they fled leaving their ancestral lands they could not lead a comfortable life. In the areas they settled down away from Murunkan, they were given a ten perch land and the people had to look for daily jobs. “We didn’t have lands to cultivate though we were farmers,” he said. The Army liberated the lands for us. They made our ancestral lands free from terrorism. We came to Murunkan in September 2010, rented a house and 16 families, lived in the house until we cleared the disputes over the lands, he said. They had no proper food or water and no income. “It was the Sri Lanka Army who noticed us and provided us with food, water and medicine and helped us,” Ranathunga said with gratitude. Today the Sinhala resettled people live in a land for which they fought for many months, amid much inconvenience and without basic facilities. The number of families increased to 52 from 16. “The road to the village was done by the Economic Development Ministry and with government funds a community hall, toilets and two wells are under construction. It is the Army who helped us to build them,” said Ranathunga who now leads the Village Civilian Committee. Sunday pola at Bogaswewa “Without a proper place to live how can we bring up our children?” questions Ranathunga. As he explained some people managed to find their paddy fields but some could not. Samaraweera Arachchige Amarasinghe is another person who lived in Murunkan and today he has returned looking for his ancestral lands. “If we stayed we would have been killed. That was their (LTTE’s) only controlling method,” he said. They remembered five Sinhala families in Adampan being killed by the LTTE. “Some families lost their members as the LTTE killed them. As we left in haste some had to come back for their household items and many were killed in the process,” Amarasinghe said. “The elderly people who live in Murunkan now know us. They ask the young people to be with us as we were also people living there for generations. These people belong to our parents’ era,” Amarasinghe said. The people believe as their parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived on these lands the future generation too must live there. “We missed our homeland but at least our future generation must not be helpless like us,” they said. The Sri Lanka Army, assisting the government development program in the resettling villages, is conducting programs on infrastructure development, healthcare, religious and cultural activities among these communities. To keep the villagers safe Village Citizen Committees have been set up in the resettling areas. The VCC members meet once a week and have discussions with civilians, Police and the Army. “Although many think that in these areas mainly the Tamil community was affected there are native Sinhala communities too who have been affected, said Competent Authority for Resettlement in the North Major General Boniface Perera. “They also were displaced. We have to care for them too, not only those living in welfare centres as Internally Displaced Persons,” he said. There are nearly 6000 Sinhala people now resettling in their original lands. Through the housing scheme funded by the Indian Government, 50 houses will be given to the Bogaswewa village of the Sinhala community in the Vanni region, Maj. Gen. Perera said. “And we are trying to find some donors to build the rest of the houses. The resettled communities are poor people and can be easily influenced by the wrong parties. But they are innocent and need our help at this moment,” he said.

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2013/04/07/fea04.asp

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2013/04/07/sec100.pdf

http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/04/08/fea03.asp

 

International Relations and Security:

Implications of the Geneva vote

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, MP

The recent vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva was upsetting, and it would make sense for Sri Lanka to assess what happened and work towards ensuring that such a situation does not occur again. However there seems little chance of that, since the same was obvious a year ago, but nevertheless nothing was done, except to sit back and hope disaster would not strike twice.

One of the UNHRC sittings in Geneva

The only efforts at analysis we saw from the Ministry of External Affairs were leaks to the effect that the vote engineered by the United States had put Sri Lanka back on track to working with what were described as its traditional allies.

Dayan Jayatilleka and Tamara Kunanayagam were denigrated as having tried to turn us towards what were described as virtually rogue states such as North Korea and Cuba.

That juxtaposition revealed very clearly where the thinkers in the Ministry of External Affairs, if that is an appropriate word, were coming from.

Cuba, loathed by the United States, is a model as far as foreign relations are concerned, and we would do well to try to understand why internationally it gets support from almost all countries in the world except for the United States and its absolute dependents.

North Korea is a different phenomenon, and the idea that Dayan or Tamara would advocate getting ourselves into that particular category is absurd.

Navanethem Pillay

But, as far as the mandarins in the Ministry are concerned, there is no need to make distinctions; as J R Jayewardene advocated when he turned to the West after 1977, we should be even more bitter than the West is in denigrating its opponents.

That philosophy underscored his appalling attitude to India. The attitude of the United States to India then explained however our attempts to take on India, even though we should have realized – and the United States indeed make this clear to us – that they would not come to our rescue in the event of conflict.

International relations

What is astonishing however is that, despite the rapprochement between the United States and India, our Cold Warriors still continue to denigrate the latter. The vicious misrepresentation of the very positive attitude of the Indian Opposition Leader (working in terms of the bipartisan approach to international relations that India manages to sustain however bitter political rivalries are) made clear what was going on.

However, even though, as suggested by the President, I wrote to the Foreign Secretary asking that the prevailing destruction of our international image be investigated, nothing has happened. Clearly the persistence of the attitudes of the eighties is condoned, despite the world having moved on.

This absurdity extends to the failure to build up alliances in areas where we had so many advantages four years ago. The manner in which Tamara Kunanayagam, as our ambassador in Brazil and then Cuba, built not just positive relations but even admiration and affection for this country throughout South America, has been forgotten.

Instead we have entrusted Cuba to an envoy who seems to think what it has achieved in the last half century is as nothing compared to the joys of being within the American sphere of influence.

Human rights

For me perhaps the most significant aspect of the latest vote in Geneva is the fact that Brazil voted against us. Our apologists will claim that Brazil was under pressure from the United States, but it was under pressure in 2009 and voted with us.

Its ambassador was one of Dayan’s most affectionate allies, who gave us advice on how we should move forward, but supported us in the belief that we intended to do this expeditiously.

Instead then of getting angry with Brazil for voting against us, we should rather consider as to whether we should not be doing more to win support from a country that should be a natural ally.

The point is, the efforts the United States is making have very little to do with human rights, but reflect an effort to change the architecture of international relations. Sri Lanka is a convenient guinea pig for this, as we saw five years ago, when Gareth Evans and his ilk were trying to turn us into the first stamping ground for the enlarged version of his infamous doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. The manner in which he twisted the provisions of that doctrine as approved by the United Nations, to suggest that unilateral actions were acceptable, is not something we should treat lightly, given what happened in Iraq and Libya, and what is happening now in Syria.

Extraordinary letter

Brazil, like India, is not a country that would approve of such adventurism. But instead of making the point about the principles involved, we have simply, as one erudite Indian journalist put it, simply been asking for votes, with no efforts to explain and illustrate our position in between sessions of the Council.

I still recall the manner in which one South American diplomat, who was given the paper that Tamara and I prepared to show the importance of Reconciliation, when I went against my will to Geneva in March 2012, said that had he seen these arguments earlier, his country’s position might well have been different.

The petticoat diplomacy that destroyed us in Geneva between Dayan and Tamara did not bother to explain, perhaps because the intellectual capacity to explain was lacking in someone who got into the Ministry through the back door.

It simply pleaded, and then engaged in abuse when things did not work out, as was seen in the extraordinary letter sent to Navanethem Pillay recently. The fact that this came from the same Ministry that had let down Tamara when she objected on principle to what Navy was up to some months back makes clear the complete absence of either thought or policy planning in the Ministry.

This must change if we are not to be destroyed soon. But it seems that no one cares.

 

http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/04/08/fea01.asp

MURALI clean bowls JAYA, KARUNA and the EELAMIST MAFIA

Geoff Wijesinghe

World champion bowler, the highly respected Muttiah Muralitharan in an immediate reaction to Tamil Nadu fat cat Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s ban on Sri Lankan cricketers participating in the IPL in Chennai in a comment which went over the international news wire services has in one well received comment demolished the Tamil Nadu Mafia headed by the variously described as former mistress, concubine very close friend and heir to the late M.G. Rammachand, the unmitigated thug and Don of the crime in the State, Eelamists, the LTTE and those members of the Tamil Diaspora who could well be described as a Crime Syndicate.

Muttiah Muralitharan

Said the soft spoken spin legend who holds the world records for both Test and ODI, “I am a Tamil, but a Sri Lankan first. The ban affects me, too. I am married to an Indian woman from Tamil Nadu. It means that although I have deep roots in Chennai I am not wanted there. I can assure the world, that there is peace and tranquility in Sri Lanka since war ended and that the Tamils are living happily. We are being treated equally with love and respect. It is sad that the Tamil Nadu Government does not want us there. It’s very unfortunate that people in power start mixing politics with sport”.

These comments by an outstanding sportsman who along with colleagues such as Kumar Sangakkara carry out free coaching camps in Jaffna and arrange cricket matches haven’t been well received by the Western community whose scales fell from their eyes after reading what a man they really believed had to say about the situation in Sri Lanka. Many Tamils who were swallowing the anti Sri Lanka propaganda of the Eelamists and the Tamil Diaspora have now realized the truth, that these selfish pretenders acting as agents of Western politicians who like Jayalalithaa and KarunanidhiKarunanidhi are vying for votes in their Western constituencies.

The 40,000 spectators who packed Eden Gardens at Wednesday’s opening game between the Knight Riders and the Delhi Dare Devils captained by Mahela Jayawardene cheered as Mahela entertained them to batsmanship of the finest quality. They roared in delight as Mahela hit a soaring six, the first of the tournament.

Delhi captain Mahela Jayawardene celebrates after scoring 50 during the match between KKR and DD at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 3, 2013. (Photo: IANS)

The fact is that all Indian states, except for the Tamil Nadu Government are giving the strongest support to the current IPL. According to reports, the population of Tamil Nadu, whose captain is the nationally popular M.S. Dhoni are terribly disappointed at the appalling spoil sport attitude of Jayalalithaa and the notorious thug Karunanidhi who thyme around a set of the Tamil Eelam bogey in order win support in his bid to regain power at the next state election. This man, who arrived in Chennai with an empty steel trunk, runs the Chennai Mafia and owns bus and other transport services, has over 40 TV and radio stations and various other undisclosed sources.

Hillary Clinton

Jayalalithaa Jayaram

M.G. Rammachand

John Kerry

Robert Blake

Muttiah Muralitharan, a quiet soft spoken cricketer with impeccable character has knocked into a cocked hat the Tamil diaspora its paid acolytes such as Channel 4 TV, a dubious UK based TV company which it finances, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch who it has been proved are well funded by the US Government.

With the welcome departure of Hillary Clinton the smaller independent nations which were being bullied by the former such as likes of Robert Blake who is obsessed with the desire to destroy Sri Lanka because of his well known support for the LTTE and his remorse at failing in desperate attempts to save the leaderships of the world’s most ruthless terrorist organization, the irony of it is that while the US State Department blackballs Major General Shavindra de Silva who led the final successful battle which vanquished Prabakaran and his brigands and who is Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative in the United Nations invites him to lecture to them on how to defeat terrorism.

Tamil Nadu political jokers

We hope that the new Secretary of State John Kerry in keeping with his earlier statements when Secretary of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will cause a sea of change in the American Government with the smaller nations and the bullying thoroughly domineering attitude will be replaced by one of friendship and goodwill.

It was always felt that this, too, was the policy of President Obama, but that he was hamstrung by the state department led by Hillary Clinton. As a result the US Government created more enemies than friends, particularly the smaller nations such as Sri Lanka which are strongly independent.

As for those two Tamil Nadu political jokers who should never been tolerated in politics one is reminded of the popular song “Anything you can do I can do better” in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”.

Chief Minister Jayalatlihaa and Karunanidhi, the octogenarian who carries out his mafia style operations from a wheel chair are according to media reports the most corrupt individuals in Tamil Nadu. They resort to rabble rousing and stone throwing at Lankan pilgrims in order to divert attention of the voters of their incompetence and monumental corruption.

The corruption charges against Karunanidhi are so many that he is often referred in the Indian media as the king of corruption. He was accused of supporting the LTTE and was indicted which fact was included in the interim report of the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

Corruption cases

His Family Tree shall make Royal Court of Arms wince. His method of creating benamis (beneficiaries) is to be seen to be believed - wife, companions, sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, nephews, nieces, sister, sisters’ son-in-laws, son-in-law, son in law’s parents, his next in command in the party, party men, bureaucrats, drivers, peons and cooks.

He has a Trust in his parent’s name which he controls indirectly. His kin have been acquiring educational institutions and real estate on a large-scale.

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has a staggering 46 corruption cases against her. Amongst the various scams were the Rs.70 million coal import scam, Tansi land deal case, case of disproportionate assets and colour TV case, amongst many others. A raid in her residence and business establishments led to the seizure of some 28 kg of jewellery (worth Rs 51 crore), 91 wrist-watches, 41 air-conditioners, 10,500 sarees, 750 pairs of shoes, etc. She along with her former Cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats who worked with her are still facing investigation with regard to corruption.

 

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=Significant_reduction_in_Sri_Lankan_illegal_immigrants_to_Australia_20130403_05

Significant reduction in Sri Lankan illegal immigrants to Australia.

The Australian Emigration Authorities said that there is a significant decrease in the number of illegal immigrants arriving in the Australian shores from Sri Lanka although there is an increase from some other countries.

They said that Vietnamese and Burmese people are making the perilous sea journey to Australia than ever before. Elaborating further they said that nearly 250 people have arrived from Bangladesh this year and it is the first time that Bangladesh has appeared in official statistics.

They said that Iranians become the main group of asylum seeker arrivals and the large numbers of Sri Lankans seen last year has significantly reduced this year.

Australian Emigration Authority records show that 1079 Iranians made the trip to Australia by boat so far this year.

The number of Sri Lankans attempted to enter Australia last year amounted to 6428 people, but this year up to now only 95 arrivals have been recorded. The Australian authorities said that increased sea patrols by Sri Lankans authorities, as well as Australia's policy to return Sri Lankans who arrive by boat, have made a significant impact on the illegal arrivals.

Courtesy : Department of Government Information