Apr-Jun, 2011
CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S COMPLICITY IN WORLDWIDE
Neither Sri Lanka nor any body appointed by Mahinda Rajapkasa can investigate War crimes and genocide
The March from Tarapur to Jaitapur
The prize of freedom gained and the price of freedom lost
Sri Lanka: In The Eye Of The Storm
Russia, China warn Sri Lanka: NO MORE ‘GUNG-HO’
Why did the the Rajapaksas lie to the people of Sri Lanka?
Accountability before Reconciliation
Fourth in the poll but not selected, why?
Serial killer Yakadaya meets national killer Rajapaksa.
WE DON'T HAVE TOO MANY FRIENDS. JUST GOOD FRIENDS
Why We Need a Republic of Canada, Now
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China
CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S COMPLICITY IN WORLDWIDE
Special ContributionBy Massey Subra
June 20, 2011
A Drunken Chinese prostitute
World over the Sex Trade and Massage Parlours ( Advertised under Adult Entertainment) are filled with Asian Nationals of Chinese descent. If the Chinese government has no complicity, at least as of today, they know that there is a massive sex trade involving girls of Chinese origin. Why this particular sector of the "Tax Free Economy" has a heavy presence of Chinese females? if China has any Human Rights Policies then this will not happen in massive scale. China usually exports dollar items, but these girls are fetching between $120-$180 per hour, most expensive item exported by China. Liberals in making money, repressive in Human Rights!
"Highest paid profession is the oldest profession in the world", Confucius didn't say that.
China instead of telling the world what is wrong with the west must take care of their own internal national human rights issues such as protecting their women from sex trade. China also must comply with the Human Rights laws of the United Nations, instead of approving Human Rights violations and genocide in Sri Lanka. IF CHINA DOES NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ITS MORAL COMPASS we have no choice but to start a worldwide campaign to expose its shortcomings.
Sri Lanka has been going around telling the world China will standby their criminal and genocidal behavior. It appear that China's attitude towards its own women and their attitude towards rogue regimes seem similar and sometime identical. China must come out openly and spell out its Human Rights position and policies instead of letting Sri Lanka tell the world about China's Human Rights policies.
Looks as if Chinese people are being treated like modern day slaves by the Chinese government. Chinese people living outside China must bring about Human Rights awareness to Chinese people living within the confines of the Ghost Wall of China.
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Srilanka
Neither Sri Lanka nor any body appointed by Mahinda Rajapkasa can investigate War crimes and genocide
Special ContributionBy Massey Subra
June 11, 2011
Vavuniya Kathikamr refugees camp
A suspect can only be a defendant and a witness not the judge and the jury
Either Sri Lankans are as the legend calls MODAYAS ( Stupid ignorant people in Singhalese language) or outright Liars. G(reat) L(iar) Peiries, the foreign minister is the vivid example how he lies, knowing that he is telling a lie, that the listener knows that he is telling lie and he also knows that the listener knows that he is telling lie and still tells a lie. I hope I put is correct. (G)reat (L)iar. Peiries is a man with out a conscience.
Where in the world a suspect is allowed to do his own investigation into his own crime? The flow of events is clear indicator of who is the seminal source of this melodrama. Educated intellectuals do not have this capacity to think like this. Only criminals who have resorted to life threatening crimes can think this way. So Mahinda Rajapaksa says I will investigate the criminals, but where are the criminals? They are sitting in his own living room enjoying Kaddafi brand Kassipu ( Illicit booze).
Now listen folks all these ministers, professors and doctorates are all part of the gang. They were honored these fancy university degrees by Mahinda Rajapaksa. So when you see the names of Prof.G(reat) L(iar). Peiries, Dr.Dayan Jayatilake (Book worm warrior), Dr. Rajiva Wijesingha (king of Kassipu), Dr Palitha Kohana (sewer rat), Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella, Dr.Mervyn Silva (Drug dealer) these are all crfiminals. These were conferred by Mahinda Rajapaksa to pull wool over our eyes. A drug dealer with a Ph.D? Wimal Weerawamsa, the head of the guillotine division that beheads people. But I give credit to Mahinda for being such a smart crook and a wise criminal, or may be not....too long.
The ministers are part of the gang of criminals.Then among Tamils, who are with Mahinda Rajapksa , Douglas Devanantha, an accussed murderer, Karuna amman a passport forger, K.Pathmnathan wanted by the Interpol, Pillaiyan, a former LTTE.
So these criminals got together and took over the parliament, law enforcement, military and judiciary and have become a criminal organization unto themselves. Then there are the people who can be bought with food, sex and money.
This is the cartel that says we will investigate our own crimes. Russia and China are their body guards. Can you imagine a brothel with two goons standing outside as body guards. Whatever happens inside the brothel is justified by the gang. May I suggest that the Russians and Chinese learn Singhalese language to really get to know what they are up against.
We let the conscience of the world leaders and Diplomats be their own judge.
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India
The March from Tarapur to Jaitapur
Special ContributionBy Gabriele Dietrich
June 10, 2011
The Tarapur-Jaitapur march to oppose the Jaitapur nuclear power plant
Living in a state of denial over the possibility of another Fukushima, the government has given a green signal to the six-reactor nuclear plant at Jaitapur. This article recounts the public meetings, demonstrations and arrests that were part of the three-day march from Tarapur to Jaitapur during 23-25 April, which brought together an ideologically diverse group of activists. A growing number of anti-nuclear struggles in various parts of the country are concerned as to how many more Chernobyls and Fukushimas will be needed to arouse our imagination to come up with less wasteful and less destructive energy options.
The march from Tarapur to Jaitapur during 23-25 April 2011, followed by a demonstration on Chernobyl in Mumbai the day after, telescoped the historical memory of the last 25 years, which experienced three significant events. These were the horrendous meltdown in Ukraine in 1986, the recent shock of the triple meltdown in Fukushima, and the people’s struggle in Ratnagiri district to prevent the setting up of a gigantic nuclear plant with the support of French nuclear firm Areva in Jaitapur. It also made visible the iron determination of the central and state governments to not let the truth about nuclear energy and the energy question at large, enter the public mind, to tire out and criminalise the campaigners and to behave as if nothing was the matter at all.
Meetings and Arrests
The campaign was organised by Konkan Vinashkari Prakalpa Virodhi Samiti (KVPVS), Azadi Bachao Andolan and Lokayat from Pune, and was supported by numerous organisations and prominent individuals. It started at Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan in Mumbai and moved to Tarapur, where a public meeting took place under massive police protection, addressed by two retired judges, B G Kolse Patil and P B Sawant, and L Ramdas and many activists.
The meeting ended peacefully at 3 pm, but police harassment started immediately afterwards and 134 activists were arrested under Sections 67 and 68 of the Mumbai Police Act (prohibiting assembly of more than four people). The detention in Boisar police station lasted until late in the night (without raising charges). To hold people for so long without charges was illegal, and to detain over 30 women past 8 pm under such circumstances was against all rules. The phones were jammed and tapped most of the time. After the roll call at 9 pm and the attempt to finally serve food, the activists declared a hunger strike. The bus drivers were intimidated by the police and were reluctant to carry on. One vehicle was abandoned, so that all the stranded people had to be crammed into one bus. The overloaded bus driver protested and dropped people off at the nearest bus stop at 2 am. The activists reached the next leg at Yusuf Meherally Centre near Panvel only at 6 am.
The afternoon of 23 April witnessed a substantial crowd at a public meeting in Thane, organised by Rajan Raje, independent trade unionist of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Sawant and Kolse Patil together with many local activists addressed the meeting.
On 24 April a procession and public meeting took place in Pen in Raigad district, where N D Patil of Shetkari Shramik Sangathana has been supporting the struggle and the district administration is generally supportive. But since the state government in collusion with the centre put enormous pressure on the local police, 23 people had to court token arrest and were released only at 5 pm, while the yatra remained paralysed. The yatra could not reach Sane Guruji Smarak, where a local meeting was organised by Ulka Mahajan.
Living in Denial: Token ‘Solutions’
In view of the enormous obstruction by the state government, the larger part of the march moved towards Sane Guruji Smarak on 25 April and decided to end the campaign in Mahad, the highly symbolical and significant place of Ambedkar’s historical struggle against the privatisation of water of Shaudar Talab (1927-29). In the meantime, Banwarilal Sharma of Azadi Bachao Andolan, along with nine supporters from his organisation and prominent figures like Anil Sadgopal and Amarnath Bhai (Sarva Seva Sangh and National Alliance of People’s Movements) went to Ratnagiri district using public transport and visited the family of Tabrez Sayekar. They dodged the police to reach Nate village, expressed their condolences and had a public meeting reaffirming their determination to fight.
The youth part of the yatra, supported by older leaders like Ramdas, Lalita Ramdas, Niraj Jain (Lokayat), Vaishali Patil (KVPVS), Sanober Keshwar (advocate), S P Udayakumar (National Alliance against Nuclear Energy), Soumya Datta (Delhi Platform) and D Gabriele (NAPM) held a march through Mahad and a public meeting at Shivaji Chowk. Once again, the police insisted on detaining 15 people. After the release, the meeting closed with a forceful affirmation of our democratic rights to agitate, mobilise, organise and a condemnation of nuclear energy as the ultimate and most lethal form of untouchability, invisibly contaminating water, air, soil and living beings and radiating on up to 40,000 years. People in Fukushima did not know how to dispose of the dead and could not even come near them. Everything depended on the workers cleaning up the radioactive material, who risked their lives to intolerable levels of contamination. In the mean time, Mathani Saldana of the National Fishermen Forum (NFF) campaigned with pamphlets in Lonere. It was indeed a decentralised triumph of unity despite great obstacles.
The demonstration on 26 April in Mumbai from Dadar to Currey Road Naka supported by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, All-India Trade Union Congress, CPI-ML, Trade Union Centre of India, marchers of the Konkan Bachao Samiti, KVPVS, Lokayat, NAPM and many others, focused on Chernobyl and Jaitapur. All this went on in the teeth of vigorous defamation campaigns. On 25April, the Mumbai Mirror reported that petrol bombs were hurled at a staff bus in the premises of the plant at Tarapur, injuring two employees. The report mentioned that this violence was assumed to have been incited by the campaign and march of Azadi Bachao Andolan. This is of course sheer character assassination, as the march was entirely non-violent and Azadi Bachao Andolan is based on Gandhian ethos. The same day, some newspapers reported that Jairam Ramesh felt the need to halt the Jaitapur project for a year until a transparent nuclear policy could be spelled out. This upset the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Industries Minister Narayan Rane, and Home Minister R R Patil. This explains in part the extent of pressure put on the police to obstruct the yatra.
Such a fit of enlightenment on the part of Jairam Ramesh was swiftly wiped out. After a meeting of the prime minister with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the prime minister’s office V Narayanasamy and Jairam Ramesh, it was announced that Jaitapur would go through unquestioned. They were briefed by the Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy, S Banerjee, and S K Jain of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India that will operate the two 1650 MW reactors in Jaitapur. An independent Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India will subsume the role of the existing Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and all reactors will have separate shutting down systems so that chain reactions, like the one in Fukushima, could be ruled out. A “generous new compensation package” was also envisaged. None of the marchers felt confident about such “solutions”. It was only clear that the march had raised some dust and had made the establishment nervous. How many more Chernobyls and Fukushimas would be needed to break through the wall of denial is a question that still awaits an answer.
Ideological Composition
The struggle of resistance to nuclear energy has many complicated ideological ramifications. The yatra itself was of very mixed composition – from Gandhian to broadly leftist – but with a large participation of youngsters who are primarily ecologically motivated, some of them Ambedkarites. Among the left, only the Marxist-Leninist forces have taken a clear anti-nuclear stand, while the CPI and CPI-M are more on an anti-imperialist line against foreign technology, but are reluctant to oppose the nuclear option as a whole. The disaster in Fukushima has no doubt made everybody more cautious and safety conscious. But nobody knows how to store nuclear waste, which clearly ruins its “clean alternative” image. The stand of the Shiv Sena is reminiscent of the struggle against the Enron plant in Dabhol. The party has jumped on the issue because of the massive local resistance against the Jaitapur plant. The local member of legislative assembly, Rajan Salvi, is in jail with 49 activists for having blown up the project wall on 18 April.
This constellation made it necessary for the Shiv Sena to spell out a policy on the nuclear question. Anti-nuclear activists helpfully made available the views of the likes of Helen Caldicott and Praful Bidwai and translated the cut-and-paste job into Marathi. This position is now published with the names of Manohar Joshi, Uddhav Thackeray and Rajan Salvi. Sometimes truth travels in very circuitous ways to reach the light of day. The political problems thrown up in this process can become very complex. The violence employed by the Shiv Sena gives justification to more state repression.
The Strong Anti-Nuclear Wave
One thing is clear – anti-nuclear struggles are at present on the rise. On 26 March 2011, a silent demonstration of about 700 activists took place in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. The first two 1,000 MW reactors of this plant with Russian VVER-1000 technology are supposed to go critical in June. This is likely to be delayed, as the Coastal Regulation Zone clearance has not been obtained. The contract for this plant goes back to the 1980s and the process was held up due to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Around two years ago, the prime minister announced proudly the acquisition of Russian submarines, which could keep safe our nuclear war heads. These submarines were indeed the reason why we bargained for a technology which was thought to be less safe than the Chernobyl type reactor before Chernobyl happened. In the mean time, the people of Kudankulam can look forward to six such reactors.
The fishing community has consistently protested and the final leg of the Coastal March of the NFF “Protect Waters Protect Life” ended in a shoot-out by the police, in which six fishermen were gravely injured on 1 May 1989 in Kanyakumari (Dietrich 1989). Today, fishermen’s organisations in Kerala are expressing their resistance against the Kudankulam project as well. The protest by the inland population has risen on and off, but has remained rather subdued.
In West Bengal, the struggle against the Haripur nuclear plant has a long-standing history and since recently, even Prakash Karat of the CPI-M has ventilated doubts whether this is the right place for such a project. The proposed Gorakhpur nuclear power plant at Fatehabad district in Haryana has been described as “Nuclear Madness at Delhi’s Doorsteps” by Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha and Delhi Platform. Representatives of all these struggles were present in the march from Tarapur to Jaitapur.
To sell nuclear options as a solution to global warming and an anti-dote to peak oil is a blatant absurdity. However, the neo-liberal ruling classes are doing just that. The Germans, living on after two world wars, feel a greater sense of urgency to review their options and a southern state Baden-Württemberg, has just elected the Greens to power, after having been run by the Christian Democrats for 58 years. Yet, the fact that Japan is now queuing up to sell its nuclear technology abroad, shows how very difficult it is to get rid of the spectre of devastation. In order to break out of the vicious circle of denial, we need a much deeper analysis of the neocolonial process of globalisation. The connection between energy options and warfare has to be recognised.
The present approach towards growth, extraction and devastation of nature and human communities needs a drastic change. For this, the unorganised workers, peasants, subsistence producers, forest dwellers, dalits, adivasis, women, and indigenous people in the north-east need to build alliances. The ongoing warfare against the internal colonies has to be seen eye to eye. The marchers got a mild taste of this internal warfare. The anti-nuclear struggle is the tip of an iceberg, and we need less wasteful, less destructive and decentralised energy options. It is difficult to think these options today, but how many Fukushimas do we need to rekindle our imagination?
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From Canada
The prize of freedom gained and the price of freedom lost
Special ContributionBy Massey Subra
May 23, 2011
Tamil protesters rally in front of the Ontario parliament in Toronto
They have three choices one to live with the status quo, or become part of India or they can be a great nation.
In 1948 a prize was given to the people of Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. in sixty years due to failed racial and fanatical policies the price paid by the people of Sri Lanka is loss of freedom.
We are totally at loss to understand why the majority Singhalese must abuse the minority Tamils and the price is loss of prize, it is a surprise. Instead of formulating a policy to retain that freedom, the Singhalese did everything that will lead to the loss of that freedom. They want to get rid of Tamil from Sri Lanka, but that proved futile. That was the plan, to get rid of Tamils, it was being carried out systematically with by force or by policies.But did the Singhalese gain any advantage? No, they did not develop their economy so that they can maintain their freedom.
For sixty years all the policies of the different and successive government is to subjugate and annihilate the Tamils.But what the Singhalese forget was, there is India on the North and rest of the world all over. The question is why would they subjugate and annihilate their own country men? It is bad for any country to have internal strife for it hurts the ability of the people to be creative and build strong economy.
Why would the Singhalese resort to defeating their own country? The Americans did the opposite, knowing the strain on the economy and peace, they carefully integrated all races together to form one United states of America. Sri Lankan could have formed a United People of Sri Lanka with one common language. The Singhalese being the majority should have done this at least in their own self interest, but they did just the opposite. Knowing the Tamils are living all over the world and have reputation for trust, loyalty and industriousness are the darlings of nations that aspire to become great nations. The Singhalese did the opposite.
Rajapaksa is the terminal end of narcissistic policies of the defunct racial and fanatical path way. It is not to late to about turn and make massive changes. If the Singhalese are not careful Sri Lanka will be another Indian state.Rajapaksa will not and cannot do it. it is the people of Sri Lanka who have to do it. They have three choices one to live with the status quo, or become part of India or they can be a great nation. the choice is up to the people.
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Srilanka
Sri Lanka: In The Eye Of The Storm
Special ContributionBy Ana Pararajasingham
May 14, 2011
The Centre for Just Peace and Democracy Director Ana Pararajasingham
When Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war ended last year it was noteworthy in several ways — including a rare if not unique example of a government defeating a long running insurgency and the related issue of China openly taking sides in a distant internal conflict. In fact it was China’s policy — which emerged in full light in 2008 — to back the government in its 25 year struggle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that enabled victory two years later.
After a US decision to stop selling arms to Sri Lanka in 2007, Beijing quickly stepped into the breach, not only supplying arms and equipment but also invaluable diplomatic support. But this assistance, not surprisingly, has come at a price. Colombo’s decision to boycott the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo is as political as the decision by Norway to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident in the first place. It was inevitable that Sri Lanka should be drawn into this contest given the crucial role played by China in helping Colombo annihilate the Tamil rebels.
Until this Chinese intervention, Sri Lanka was inexorably tied to the Indian orbit. During the Cold War when India was aligned to the Soviet Union, it ensured that Sri Lanka remained outside the Western camp or for that matter countries India regarded to be inimical to her own interests. In the early 1980s when a right-leaning Sri Lankan government attempted to court the West, New Delhi armed and trained Tamil militants to exert pressure on Colombo. Consequently, by 1987, India was able to persuade Colombo to sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord acknowledging India’s pre-eminence as “the” regional power. As a result Colombo remained within the Indian orbit despite the North-East of the island coming under the control of the fiercely independent and single-minded Tamil Tigers.
But since the end of the Cold War, Indian influence has progressively declined. In 2002, the West steadily increased its influence beginning with Norway brokering a cease-fire between Colombo and the Tamil rebels. Western involvement was further enhanced when EU, Japan and the US underwrote the peace process and collectively declared themselves to be the co-chairs to the peace process. However, with the election of the stridently anti-Western Rajapaksa as President in 2005, the West was sidelined as Sri Lanka moved close to China. China reciprocated by assisting Sri Lanka in its war against the Tamil rebels. India chose to back Colombo in a futile attempt to prevent Colombo coming entirely under Chinese embrace. It was China’s unqualified help that ensured this victory.
According to Wen Liao, a China observer, the most remarkable aspect of Sri Lanka’s recent victory over the Tamil Tigers was not its overwhelming nature, but the fact that China provided President Mahinda Rajapaksa with both the military supplies and diplomatic cover needed to prosecute the war.
Sri Lanka’s increasing closeness to China and its alienation from the West underpin a serious shift in the emerging new world order where China regards itself as “the” power to counter the US-led West. It no longer subscribes to its earlier model of ‘peaceful rise.’ Indeed, it has been argued that it was on Sri Lanka’s beachfront battlefields, that China’s “peaceful rise” ended, giving way to a more assertive posture. An assertive China is a cause for concern not only to the US but also to other international powers, most notably India.
This concern is compounded by the fact that China now has untrammeled access to the most strategic location in the Indian Ocean — the island of Sri Lanka. There is growing consensus that during the twenty-first century as the Indian Ocean emerges to be the centre stage, US, China and India will compete for control and influence. India cannot help but be wary of the growing capability of China’s navy and Beijing’s growing maritime presence. Then there is the strategy known as a ‘string of pearls’ which has involved China building bases in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka encircling India in the process. In Sri Lanka, the port at Hambantota sits directly astride the main East-West shipping route across the Indian Ocean, denying India the advantage it had hitherto taken for granted.
Given this scenario, it comes as no surprise that India and the US should seek to align themselves. More than an inkling that such an alliance was in the making was foreshadowed when Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Blake announced on September 30, 2010 that India was the United States’ “indispensable” partner for the 21st Century and was of “strategic importance to the United States…” Earlier, Under Secretary of State William Burns had announced that India and America now mattered more to one another. During President Obama’s visit to India in November, the Indian Prime Minister and the US President reaffirmed this position by describing the India-US strategic partnership to be indispensable not only for their two countries but also for global stability.
Sri Lanka’s Chinese connection places it in the eye of the storm as India and the West seek to re-assert their influence in the Indian Ocean.
Ana Pararajasingham, is Director – Programmes with the Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD). He is the author of Sri Lanka’s Endangered Peace Process And The Way Forward (2007) and editor of The Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities (2005) and Sri Lanka: 60 Years Of Independence And Beyond (2009). The article ‘Sri Lanka: In The Eye Of The Storm’ appeared in the Defence Review Asia of March-April 2011.
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United Nations
Russia, China warn Sri Lanka: NO MORE ‘GUNG-HO’
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
May 9, 2011
United Nations Security Council
Russia, China warn Sri Lanka: NO MORE ‘GUNG-HO’ - Don’t insult Ban Ki-Moon, Protect United Nations office and staff.
Russia and China have expressed concern to the Government of Sri Lanka with regard to any activity that could embarrass international organizations and their officials serving in the country, in the aftermath of the release of the Darusman report of the the a dvisory panel appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, informed diplomatic sources told this newspaper.
They have warned the government against staging protests and rallies insulting the UN Secretary-General in the country. The two powerful allies of Sri Lanka have told the UPFA government that if such moves were to continue unabated they will be compelled to review their stance of standing up for the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.
Russia and China have gone on to advice the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that leaders of political parties making up its alliance do not issue derogatory statements that could incite the people against international organizations and their officials in this country. These informed diplomatic sources also said that Russia and China have also stressed the importance to the government of providing maximum protection to the UN office situated in Colombo and other offices of international organizations in the wake of the release of the report.
Moscow and Beijing had given these instructions to Colombo after having considered recent moves within the country, and the tendency to burn effigies of the UN Secretary General in an effort to express Sri Lanka’s vehement opposition to the report.
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Srilanka
Why did the the Rajapaksas lie to the people of Sri Lanka?
Special ContributionBy Tisaranee Gunasekara
May 4, 2011
Mahinda Rajapaksa
The state has a right under international law to ensure its national security and to defend itself against armed attacks…. Those ends do not however justify all means to achieve them; all actions for those legitimate purposes must comply with the requirements of international law…”— The Darusman Report
Ne plus ultra (Not further beyond): the inscription believed to have been carved on the Pillars of Heracles (Straits of Gibraltar), warning seafarers against venturing any further. In politics there is a ‘Ne plus ultra’ line which cannot be crossed with impunity.
The LTTE, by attacking civilians, conscripting children and murdering political-opponents, ventured far beyond this line, time and again. The revulsion caused by these excesses caused an international backlash; according to the Darusman Report, “By 2006, 32 countries had listed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation…. LTTE fundraising and arms procurement abilities were severely constrained thereafter.”
Remarkably, of these 32 countries, many were Western nations home to large Lankan-Tamil communities. Though sympathetic to the Tamil cause, most either helped Colombo or remained neutral, as the Tiger sank under the deadweight of its colossal crimes and errors. As the Report points out, “Many Sri Lankans and others round the world were relieved that the….LTTE renowned for its brutality was defeated……. However many people in Sri Lanka and elsewhere were deeply disturbed about the means used to achieve the victory…”
That is the crux of the matter: the Lankan regime is being faulted in the Darusman Report not for battling and defeating the LTTE, but for being blasé about the safety and wellbeing of civilian Tamils during and after the war. Contrary to the regime’s assertions, the Report accepts Sri Lanka’s right to defend herself militarily: “International law….respects the legitimate interests of a state like Sri Lanka facing a threat like the LTTE.” Thus the Report is not anti-war. It critiques the regime for causing avoidable civilian casualties; for example, it alleges that the UN hub in the No-Fire-Zone was shelled on January 24, 2009: “The United Nations security officer, a highly experienced military officer….discerned that the shelling was coming from the south, from SLA positions…. When United Nations staff emerged from the bunker…. mangled bodies and body parts were strewn all around them, including those of women and children. Remains of babies had been blasted upwards into the trees…. Although LTTE cadres were present in the NFZ, there was no LTTE presence inside the United Nations hub….”
The Report also alleges that the Army shelled civilian groupings even where UAV identification was possible: “On 8th April 2009, a large group of women and children, who were queued up at a milk powder distribution line…..were shelled…… Some of the dead mothers still clutched cards which entitled them to milk powder for their children.”
The Report severely critiques the regime for treating civilian Tamils with brutal insensitivity, post-war. For instance, it argues that “by keeping Menik Farm and other farms closed, and failing to release the IDPs, it did not allow the IDPs to seek shelter with relatives.” Since the camps lacked even basic facilities, this closed-door policy caused avoidable sufferings and preventable deaths. The Report also faults the Lankan regime for its failure to offer Tamils a New Deal: “Nearly two years after the end of fighting the root causes of the ethno-nationalist conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil populations of Sri Lanka remain largely unaddressed and human rights violations continue”. (In fact, the regime is planning to turn the 13th Amendment into a dead-letter by transferring the powers of elected provincial councils into non-elected Jana Sabhas controlled by Presidential-sibling Basil Rajapaksa).
The regime accuses the Darusman Report of creating national-disunity. Sadly it is the Rajapaksas who wantonly wasted an ideal opportunity to create a genuine Sri Lankan identity, post-war. In its death throes, the Tiger abandoned all pretexts, and demonstrated that it did not care an iota for Tamils. For instance, according to the Darusman Report, “…in mid-April, LTTE cadres….forcibly recruited hundreds of young people from Valayanmadam Church….. Parents begged and cried for them not to be taken away to fight and to an almost certain death, but to no avail.”
The psychological conditions for weaning Tamils away from the LTTE/Eelam and winning them for a Lankan future were thus very much present, post-war. This potential could have been realised had the Rajapaksas not depicted and treated all civilian Tamils as actual/potential Tigers, had they appealed to impulses of kindness and generosity in the South rather than encouraging triumphalism and cultivating a fear-psychosis. Post-war, the Rajapaksas opted not for mercy and reconciliation, but for collective punishments and revengeful justice. This choice, rather than the Darusman Report, is responsible for Sri Lanka’s current condition as a psychologically-divided country.
When the UN Secretary General appointed his Advisory Panel, the regime enacted a tragicomedy and declared that it will neither recognise the Panel nor deal with it. And yet, as the Darusman Report reveals, the regime, while thundering insults at the Panel publicly, did engage with it secretly, behind the back of the nation: “The Government of Sri Lanka provided an explanation of the philosophy that frames its approach to accountability both in written responses to questions from the Panel and in a meeting on 22 February 2011 in New York….”
Why did the Rajapaksas lie to the people? Was it because they wanted to persuade the Panel not to come up with an adversarial report while using the Panel’s existence to ignite patriotic-hysteria locally? Mahinda Rajapaksa’s outburst of juvenile-euphoria about being voted No. 4 on the Time magazine’s list of influential persons demonstrates, yet again, that underneath his anti-Western bluster our President yearns to shine, not in Beijing and Tehran, but in Washington and London. Was this why the regime secretly cultivated a moderate image in New York while maintaining an anti-UN and anti-West façade in Colombo?
Having painted itself into a corner, Colombo is hoping that Delhi will come to its rescue. To achieve this purpose the Rajapaksas will make economic concessions to India and promise political concessions to Tamils. Will Delhi fall for it, again, ignoring the welter of emotions in Chennai on this issue? Can Delhi afford international intervention on its doorstep, given the Kashmiri factor?
On May 1st, the Rajapaksas are expected to launch their anti-UN Pada/Rath Yathra. According to the regime, it is the patriotic duty of all Lankans to dismiss the Report in toto. Anyone who thinks the Report should be read and analysed, let alone investigated by an independent body, is thus deemed an anti-patriot.
The Tiger creed demanded that Tamils cultivate an unconditional and unquestioning faith in the Leader, if they did not want to be castigated as traitors. As the Darusman Report pointed out “Vellupillai Pirapaharan demanded absolute loyalty and sacrifice and cultivated a cult-like following. Internal dissent was not tolerated….” This meant maintaining a ‘patriotic’ silence, as the Tiger went from excess to execrable excess. That path of total-submission to the Leader’ ended not in Eelam but in utter and total defeat. If we give the Rajapaksas a carte blanche in the name of patriotism, an equally unpalatable end will await us, someday.
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Canada
Accountability before Reconciliation
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Apr. 28, 2011
Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gothabaya Rajapksa cannot be part of the reconciliation process; they can only part of the accountability process.
Mahinda Rajapaksa thinks that he can fool the world. Mahinda Rajapaksa is the man behind all these murders and other atrocities. This man for some strange reason thinks that he can pull wool over our eyes; he even manipulated the time person of the year poll.
Mass scale murders and genocide are irreconcilable crimes and the dead lives irrevocable. Lives were lost and they cannot be redeemed. A man who knowingly commits murders is guilty of first degree murder. He knew what was going in vanni and he did not stop it, but was enjoying the suffering of innocent people from online real time transmission from UAV.
Some parties and some people cannot be part of the reconciliation process for they are the party to crime: they are the guilty of crime against humanity. Let us get this one straight Mahinada Rajapaksa and his brother Gothabaya Rajapaksa are the prime culprits in this genocide. If no genuine effort is made to address the accountability, down the road may be in 50 or 100 years the Singhalese people will pay dearly. That is the law of nature, it is not my law. Look at Palestinians, why are they paying the price? Because of their predecessors who ill traded the Jews. We have to identify the real culprits before we sit down to talk about reconciliation. I have an idea, let us ask Russia, China, India, USA and EU to provide adjudicators who will preside over an impartial inquiry into what happened during the month of May 2009.
The next question is what is the purpose of reconciliation? Reconcile with who and what? People are dead; the reconciliation has to be with the dead people. So Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying his beat around the shrub (BS). His intellect is criminal activities such as murdering people through proxies, he has no guts to confront an enemy, and he always finds patsies to do the patch up work. Who is Great Lair Peries? He is an educated con artist, and inteasd of using his intellect to improve the lives of people he is out to defend criminals. He should be charged for obstruction of justice.
And to my Tamil brothers and sisters, who among do you have guts and courage to confront these criminals? Father Emmanuel is talking about reconciliation and Rudrakuamr is gone into hiding. Any ways these two are of very little use to us. If the Tamil people want to live as second class subjects subscribe to them.
So basically our position is that let us find out who was responsible for the disappearance of 150,00 people. And then we will do the reconciliation, because the people who gave the orders and people who killed the 150,000 cannot be part of the reconciliation process.
Human right to life was denied and the people who took the life away must be found and justice meted out.
Contact: 1-800-881-8672
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Srilanka
Fourth in the poll but not selected, why?
Serial killer Yakadaya meets national killer Rajapaksa.
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Apr. 23, 2011
Look carefully in the right hand of the guy in the right, there is a letter "serial killer" yakadaya (iron man) gave to Mahinda Rajapaksa the "National killer". What was in that letter?
Mahinda Rajapaksa thinks he can fool the world. But they caught up with him, his staff was found to have done multiple voting from one email site. We too promptly kept the enitre staff at Time Inc informed about vote rigging by his computer team. I hope he learnt a good lesson that you can fool some people all of the times, all the people some of the times but you cannot fool all the people all the time, something like it.
Here is what the world thinks of Sri Lanka, Vote rigging, False travel documents, State terrorism, Abusing innocent Tamils, Breaking Human rights Laws, International Laws, Racism, Fanaticism, Murders, Extortion, Van white abductions etc.,. We provided the world a transcript of Mahinada Rajapaksa's criminal activity since 1970. yes, you read it right since 1970, some of you readers were not born in 1970. Because of one person the whole country suffers.
When Sr Lankan foreign Minister talks people right away know that he will talk nonsense. Up to 2010, Mahinda had a way of responding to questions, KILL. Queit the opposite now, he cannot do that any more unless he wants trouble. This is how people think of Mahinda, if he is so "bad" to the world, how bad he must be to the weak and the minorities. World knows that he is a criminal why patronize him.
In this poll conducetd by the Time Inc, may be he is known, but as what? and who wants to vote for him when there are so many others? May be within in Sri Lanka among Singhalese he may be a hero, but that is not what the world thinks of him. Sri Lanka, as a nation may be known, for what? It was for tea, once upon a time, now it is known as Human rights violator, but then the Tamil Diaspora is too powerful. I am not boasting, they are very powerful among the G8, they hold some top positions. The economist magazine call them "Educated Diaspora".
Look at Mahinda Rajapaksa, I have never seen him in person, what is the impression one gets, a man fat and with proturding stomach, dressed like a stuborn and the face of a criminal with dyed hair and mustache.He does not look like statesman but a stale-mate. Can he talk? No, he depends on Great Liar Peries. Peries come through like fox and jackal. Palitha Kohana comes through like a criminal in three piece suit, Prof. Rajiva Wijesingha looks like a man after few shot of Kassipu (Illicit liquor). They all look like criminal, may be they are all criminals, either by deed or by thought.
Then you have "Karuna", how can this criminal represent the nation. He was a former LTTE, turned Anti-Tamil, used false passport, been to jail etc. Then Mervin silva, a known drug dealers and murderer.
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WE DON'T HAVE TOO MANY FRIENDS. JUST GOOD FRIENDS
Apr. 13, 2011A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.
"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies." "Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money."
The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer..
"I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?"
"Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur.
The little boy pressed his face against the chain link-fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse.
Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a some what awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.
"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, "Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would."
With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers.
In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands."
With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy.
"How much?" asked the little boy... "No charge" answered the farmer, "There's no charge for love."
The world is full of people who need someone who understands.
Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND, as well as those who WERE!!!
If it comes back to you, then you'll know you have a circle of friends.
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Canada
Why We Need a Republic of Canada, Now
Special ContributionBy Rev. Kevin D. Annett
Apr. 7, 2011
The Two Row Wampum
An Ipsos Reid poll conducted in late October 2009 found that the majority - 53% of Canadians - want Canada to end its constitutional ties to the monarchy after the Queen dies. 49% of Canadians want to abolish the constitutional monarchy structure now and become a republic, with an elected head of state. The majority - 60% of Canadians - said the Queen and the Royal Family should have no formal role in Canadian society, and that they are "simply celebrities and nothing more."
The National Post, November 8, 2009:
The impending visit to Canada of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the latest royal poster kids, as well as a looming federal election, is a golden opportunity for Canadians to take a long overdue step and abolish the vestiges of a cruel colonial past by establishing a sovereign republic.
The reasons are compelling. The absurd anachronism of a foreign ruler exerting jurisdiction over our country, its courts, police and politicians, and of claiming title to so-called “Crown Land” across Canada, is something that no self-respecting people should tolerate.
Like the Vatican and other parasitic feudal institutions, the British monarchy is an unnecessary financial burden on ordinary people. Last year, the monarchy soaked more than 88 million pounds off British taxpayers, or nearly $140 million. In 2007, Canadian taxpayers masochistically shelled out more than $55 million to support the Queen’s "representative", the Governor General, who while occupying a farcically useless office, has the theoretical power to dissolve Canada’s Parliament and depose the government, which actually happened in recent Australian history.
A lingering monarchy keeps Canada chained to these kinds of unaccountable and dictatorial political practices. The Privy Council has the unilateral power to pass laws – Orders in Council – that are not subject to Parliamentary review. Such draconian powers have been responsible for the violation of civil rights through the Emergency Powers of the War Measures Act, the annulling of Canadian laws restricting foreign ownership of resources, the imposition of the apartheid Indian Act, and the creation of the abominable Indian residential schools which caused the death of tens of thousands of children. All at "the pleasure of the Crown."
Indeed, the power of the Crown over Canada and its courts is preventing any real or honorable resolution of this genocide of native people across our land, which is clearly the greatest crime in our history, and an irresolvable blot on our national conscience and our international status.
As one who for many years has aided aboriginal survivors of the Crown-established Indian residential school system, I have witnessed the cruel refusal of Canadian courts and Parliament to allow survivors to bring criminal charges against the Crown and its established churches for their deliberate, murderous ethnic cleansing of generations of native people.
This criminal obstruction of justice has recently caused Prime Minister Steven Harper to be summoned to answer charges before an International human rights Tribunal in London, England: a legitimate body that is already petitioning the European Parliament to deploy economic sanctions against Canada for genocide.
Such events are small wonder, considering Canada’s legacy of crime and inequity when it comes to native people: a heritage that stemmed from the illegal violation by the English Crown of the original treaty of equality signed between it and the eastern Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee – the so-called “Two Row Wampum” agreement of 1613. When the Crown annulled this treaty and unilaterally imposed its false jurisdiction over native nations, it laid the basis for centuries of genocide and conquest, and our continuing wrongful occupation of indigenous lands.
The Two Row Wampum in fact was the original model for a true Republic in Canada, and its destruction by the English Crown was an equal assault on the liberties and well being of European settlers and us, their descendants.
In the words of the Two Row Wampum Treaty,
You say that you are our Father and I am your son. We say, We will not be like Father and Son, but like Brothers. This wampum belt confirms our words. These two rows will symbolize two paths or two vessels, traveling down the same river together. One, a birch bark canoe, will be for the Indian People, their laws, their customs and their ways. The other, a ship, will be for the white people and their laws, their customs and their ways. We shall each travel the river together, side by side, but in our boat. Neither of us will make compulsory laws or interfere in the internal affairs of the other. Neither of us will try to steer the other's vessel.
The agreement has been kept by the Iroquois to this date, and is considered by their people to remain in effect. It is time that Euro-Canadians joined hands with them and re-established the equality and natural law that originally governed this land.
Only a sovereign Republic can do so. The Crown, like the Vatican, has placed itself above and beyond the law of the land, and its appointed judges in Canadian courts consistently refuse to hold it responsible for its crimes against our different peoples.
It was precisely such tyranny that compelled my ancestors in England to overthrow King Charles in 1649 and create a Republic, and that drove Canadians like my great great great grandfather Philip Annett to join with William Lyon MacKenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau in 1837 to try unsuccessfully to establish a true Canadian democracy.
The defeat by the Crown of our 1837 patriots froze into place in Canada what MacKenzie called “The Family Compact”: a feudal oligarchy of self-governing elites of church, state and high finance that ran the country and enslaved and decimated our aboriginal neighbors. Until we undo this historic wrong, there will be no peace or justice between our many different founding nations.
It is time for us to complete this struggle, and fulfill the founding vision of both indigenous and settler nations on this land, by proclaiming a federated and sovereign Republic with an elected head of state, and a Senate and Congress that proportionately represents all the people of our many vast regions.
As a federation of sovereign nations, the new Canada would grant the right of any indigenous nation to secede and establish their own system of government, in order to honor the spirit and legality of the Two Row Wampum as ordaining a political system of equals.
These are exciting times. Suddenly, we have a unique opportunity to reinvent ourselves as Canadians, and put all our rhetoric of “healing and reconciliation” into actual practice, by first dismantling the system that made Canada a dependency of empire and an arm of colonial conquest. Only then can we begin to sow again in new soil the seeds of a truly just society: one based on the natural law of equality, harmony with the earth and each other, and genuine sovereignty.
I propose that we put this question of establishing the Republic of Canada to an immediate national referendum, concurrent with the general Federal election.
Let the politicians and courts of our land ignore this call at their own peril.
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>> Jan-Mar, 2011
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