As I wrote the original Post,I could not get adequate first hand report(reliable) on the rebuilding efforts in Sri Lanka, Post Civil War and LTTE.
Today I came across an article in the Guardian, which states that the Rebuilding efforts are normal and raises questions over the 13 th Amendment and the size of the Defence Foeces to be maintained in the Tamil Areas.
Ifeel that this might take time because one hs to take into account the tragedy suffered by the Sri Lankans as well.
Surprising, or is it intentional that no report of this nature is picked up by The Tamil Media and even on the internet one has to hunt for this information!
Reconstruction
A recent visit to Colombo and Jaffna enabled this writer to hear a range of voices and also see the reconstruction activities that have been undertaken by the Sri Lankan authorities in the latter city and area. The resettlement work and the reconstruction of physical infrastructure in the four years that have passed since the LTTE’s defeat have been good. While there is a civilian administration in place, the Governor is a retired army officer and this is a ground for complaint. It is true that Colombo would have had little option but to rely on the army in the immediate aftermath of the conflict for resettlement and development work. However, popular sentiment would now be addressed by reducing the army’s salience. The acquisition of land for the expansion of defence facilities is a major ground for complaint.
One of the most contentious issues relates to the size of the defence force to be stationed in the Northern Province. Almost all sections of Tamil opinion are convinced that if the defence forces are placed in large numbers in extensive military facilities, their sole objective would be to coerce the Tamil population. The basis of this belief is that the threat of violent separatism has disappeared with the defeat of the LTTE. The Rajapaksa view, endorsed by many Sinhalese, is that this is not so. It strongly holds that the ambition of a separate Tamil state is widespread, especially in the influential Tamil diaspora. The diaspora is currently focused more on putting pressure on Colombo on human rights issues. However, in future it can promote violent activities and an empowered province in the north may provide them with a base.
There is no easy resolution of these two fundamentally contradictory visions. In the 21st century, terrorist violence is an issue but the security of plural and multi-ethnic states is best guaranteed in satisfactorily addressing the reasonable aspirations of ethnic and religious minorities including their quest for identity, justice, democracy and development. On their part, minorities must shun violent approaches and understand the concerns of the majority communities. Historical memory, ancient grievances and the dubious lessons of battles lost and won in centuries past cannot guide leaders, particularly those who control the destinies of peoples and countries in this digital age.
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment is the cornerstone of the position of the overwhelming majority of the Tamil political class. It has already been diluted by the decision of the Court regarding the inadmissibility of the merger of the Northern and the Eastern provinces. Any further weakening of the Amendment is unacceptable to them. The Indian position too is to support the implementation of the Amendment. Recently, the Union Minister for External Affairs, Salman Khurshid, urged his Sri Lankan counterpart that elections for the Northern Provincial Council need to be held within the time frame announced by President Rajapaksa and under the present provisions of the Constitution. While India is firmly committed to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, the entire country shares the concern expressed in Tamil Nadu for the rights and welfare of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community. Will President Rajapaksa take these views into account and if he does not, what can and will India do? The communication channels which have worked successfully to diffuse situations in the past now need to operate urgently.
(Vivek Katju is a former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan.)
I have been posting articles on the repression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka,The Genocide and lack of progress in the resettlement of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, post the civil war and LTEE era.
Displaced in Sri Lanka
I still hold the same views on the culpability of the Rajapakshe Government in the massacre of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Regarding developmental activities in Sri Lankapost Civil War, as I mentioned in my earlier posts, there is scant and vague information in the internet,
The tales of atrocities continue.
However, normally very credible Thuglak, a Tamil Fortnightly, run by Mr, Cho Ramaswamy, Satirist and Political Commentator, has been running a series of articles being reported by its Reporter, SJ Idhaya, who has visited Sri Lanka, which states that war normalcy has returned ,people are going about their normal activities and are relieved to be rid of the LTTE Threat.
Excerpts.
Killinochi,Pudukkudiruppu,Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniya have returned to normalcy.
People used to dig holes in the houses, hide children to save them from being recruited by The LTTE.
The women who were interviewed had admitted that they have joined the Sri LankanArmy and that there has been no force.
The people are not threatened nor are they being mistreated by the Army.
The reporter confirms that those interviewed were those who had no time to prepare their replies and most of the time the interviews were impromptu.
The reporter affirms that the demand for Tamil Elam is the making of the Tamil Politicians for their vote-bank.
For more on this read the Thuglak dtd 26 June 2013.
I am providing a Link for Mr.Cho’s views on the subject.
‘I doubt these people realise that the US resolution does not condemn Sri Lanka as such. The resolution says that recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Com-mission (LLRC) appointed by Colombo, which was something like the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, should be implemented. The US resolution also insists that there must be a settlement of the Tamil problem. I cannot understand what the champions of the Eelam cause see in it.”
Tamils have come under the Sri Lankan Army‘s Chemical weapons attack today, Tamil sources affirmed. They added it is unknown if the chemical weapons have been used previously in the war since many have been admitted to hospital with the same symptoms of dizziness, vomiting and fainting. However these symptoms had been ignored as they were due to hunger and distress.
In the final days of closing on the LTTE rebels, who have been fighting for a free state for Tamils in the North and East, the Sri Lankan Government is frustrated by mounting foreign concerns over its war crimes and banned media.
The Sri Lankan Army is at the final stages of removing evidences of the bloody war they have declared on Tamils in the name of rooting out ‘terrorism’. When the screens open for the outside world to see what has happened to Tamils in the area, the Sri Lankan Government want obedient and scared Tamils citizens to “praise” the government’s effort to “free” the regions from LTTE.
To simplify the job, the Sri Lankan Government has deployed its chemical weapons to cleanse the Tamils and LTTE rebels in the war zones. Civilians have reported vomiting, difficulty in breathing, dizziness and fainting after been subjected to these attacks.
Sources also said that the Sri Lankan Army higher officials wearing mask to protect themselves from the fumes and lower cadets were actually found in distress, who were then transported to Army facilities to get medical help.
LTTE warns against use of ‘chemical weapons’
COLOMBO, AUG. 16, 2001.
The LTTE today accused Sri Lanka of purchasing a banned chemical weapon and warned of “dangerous consequences” if it was inducted in the battlefields of northeastern Sri Lanka.
The LTTE statement appeared to be referring to the Russian- manufactured RPO-A Shmel rocket launcher without naming it. The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week that the Government had purchased 1,000 units of the weapon.
The Sri Lankan Army spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, confirmed the purchase of the Shmel, but denied it was a chemical weapon or that it was banned.
The RPO-A Shmel is a rocket-propelled incendiary/blast projectile launcher whose warhead contains a “thermobaric” flammable mixture, that is, it simulates high pressure conditions when detonated in enclosed structures and in the open.
The use of this weapon by the Russian Army in Chechnya came in for strong criticism by the human rights groups.
Rakpakshe government has been trumpeting that they have been Developmental Plans for the Tamils in Sri Lanka for Tamils post LTTE, genocide era.
Killing of Tamils,Sri Lanka
Facts seem to indicate other wise.
1.Victors,though this term is an inappropriate term to use for killing your own citizens,this is the term what Rajapakshe government uses,
need to be magnanimous,
Lanka Government has opened up a Museum on the War , insulting the Tamils and is promoting it as a Tourist attraction.(read my post for Details)
Sri Lanka’s War Museum.
2.The Government has announced training programmes for The Tamils.
Tamil Girls are molested and Tamil men return with fear truly terrified.
3.Religious Freedom,Attacks on Muslims.
Though the Sri Lanka Government speaks of tolerance; the reality is otherwise.
Muslims were made to go against the Tamils and after the Genocide Muslims have become the target of attacked by the Buddhist extremists.(read my spot )
This is what The Institute on Religious and Public Policy has to say in its 2012 Report.
”
(15) The BBC reported in January 2011 that foreign Muslim preachers in Sri Lanka were ordered to leave the country for violating visa regulations. Sir Lanka’s immigration head Chulanada Perera told AFP news agency, “They have violated immigration laws. A tourist visa is to have a holiday or visit friends and family, and not to preach Islam”.
(16) In September 2011, mobs, allegedly led by Buddhist monks, destroyed a Muslim religious site in the Buddhist city of Anuradhapura.
(17) Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva, who is a member of the Buddhist majority party, organized and led a protest march in September 2011 to force Hindus to stop the traditional religious ceremony that involves public animal sacrifice. Minister Silva argued that animal sacrifice harms the public image of Sri Lanka. Police reported that they had a court order to halt the animal sacrifice due to requests from activists, and increased the security level in the area because of the unrest.
(18) According to a news report in November 2011, the Ministry of Education did not allow Catholic and Christian students to register for religion exams in English. The Ministry offered examinations only in Sinhala and Tamil. The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Ranjith appealed to the government in his writing, “the majority of students follow their religion in the “English medium,” and therefore should have the opportunity to do the exam in that language”. However, the Ministry of Education rejected his appeal.”
4. Resettlement of Tamils.
Rather than resettling displaced Tamils, since the war ended, the Sri Lankan armed forces have occupied a further 7,000 sq km of land owned by Tamil people.
So what do the government’s claims of resettlement mean?
“According to the government’s own figures as at 1st July 2011, 258,446 had been ‘returned’ or ‘resettled’ from welfare camps, leaving 12,661 in the Kadirgamar, Anandakumarasawmi (Zone 1), Arunachalam (Zone III) IDP camps. The most current figures suggest that only 7,440 persons remain in these camps, insinuating that all others have been returned or resettled.
“What the statistics do not reveal is that over 200,000 persons in the North and East have not been returned to their places of origin. These persons either continue to be confined in transit camps or have been compelled to take shelter with host families [elsewhere].
“Such persons include those displaced from Valikamam North in the Jaffna Peninsula, Sampur in the Trincomalee District, and several other areas in the Vanni.”
– M.A. Sumanthiran, TNA parliamentarian. See The Hindu’s report here.“
Worse is the government is moving two Sinhalese families for one family of Tamils being resettled in Tamil Areas.
Now in Trincomalee,which used to be a Tamil majority area, Sinhalese are equal to Tamils numerically.
5.Lands of the Tamils have been confiscated , and are either with the Military of handed over to Sinhalese.
6.The Military regime is so tight that even for a family function The Tamils have to get permission from the military, which, usually, is refused.
7.Rape of Tamil Women.
Can rape be far behind when Sri Lanka army is on Duty?
Rapes and killing of Tamil Men are routine.
“( June 06, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)Women and children are at the receiving end of serious crimes due to political interference and the failure of the police to carry out law and order in the country states Socialist Women’s Union (SWU) and pointed out that a woman is raped somewhere in Sri Lanka every 90 minutes.
SWU points out that this state is due to the introduction of the free economy to the country which destroyed human relationships and created a society that decides everything on money. This was stated by the National Organizer of the SWU Samanmalee Gunasinghe at a special media meeting held at the head office of the JVP at Pelawatta today (5th).”(Srilanka Guardian 6 June, 2012)
Tamils raped post War,Genocide.
Report by Human Rights Watch.
Published on Feb 26, 2013
(London, February 26, 2013) — Sri Lankan security forces have been using rape and other forms of sexual violence to torture suspected members or supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. While widespread rape in custody occurred during the armed conflict that ended in May 2009, Human Rights Watch found that politically motivated sexual violence by the military and police continues to the present.
The 140-page report, “‘We Will Teach You a Lesson’: Sexual Violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces,” provides detailed accounts of 75 cases of alleged rape and sexual abuse that occurred from 2006-2012 in both official and secret detention centers throughout Sri Lanka. In the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, men and women reported being raped on multiple days, often by several people, with the army, police, and pro-government paramilitary groups frequently participating.
This is what Human Rights watch has to say on this subject.
“Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said [press release] Monday that no progress has been made in Sri Lanka regarding respect for basic rights and liberties in the four years since the end of the country’s brutal 26-year civil war [JURIST backgrounder]. According to HRW, the government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official website] has failed to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes, has cracked down on media and human rights activists, and has continued to abuse suspectedLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [CFR backgrounder] supporters, despite Rajapaska’s promise to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile]. Since 2009, government officials have reportedly threatened members of the media, civil society and the political opposition, and publications have been subject to government censorship, or, in some cases, shut down. HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said:
The Rajapaksa government seems to be hoping that broad-based repression will dampen the exercise of fundamental freedoms. But Sri Lankan activists and journalists who showed incredible resilience during wartime to bring forth the truth, will undoubtedly find a way to do so when the country is at peace.
HRW urged governments to press for an independent international investigation into wartime abuses, speak out against ongoing abuses and provide support for Sri Lankan civil society.
The Sri Lankan government has faced various allegations of human rights violations and war crimes by civil rights organizations and the UN since the end of its civil war in 2009. In March the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution [JURIST report] to promote reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. In February Sri Lankan authorities were accused of using rape [JURIST report] as a method of interrogating members or supporters of the LTTE. Earlier that same month the UN criticized Sri Lanka for failing to investigate war crimes, and HRW pushed [JURIST reports] for an independent investigation of rights abuses.”
I posted an article on the Mass grave unearthed in Sri Lanka.
I received a comment , which I am reproducing below and offer my comment on them.
I write objectively , based on facts and Documents.
If my views are wrong I am willing to be corrected, but the rebuttal must be based on facts, Documents and not innuendo and abuse .
Comment Received.
“The mass graves in matale and any other place in SL is a symbol of tormented past of SLn people. The good thing is SLn people have been resilient and built their lifes back whatever they went through in late 80s. However this blog post seems more like an attempt to sling mud at sri lanka and its people.
1. Matale mass graves are no doubt connected to JVP insurgency. However continuous mention of tamils in this try to create an impression this is a grave of tamil civilians.
2. Matale mass grave is a result of SLA’s anti insurgency campaign. Whatever the bad it did ultimately it saved Slns and its people from a far brutal Marxist campaign. Trying to paint this in black and white is distorting the whole scenario.
3. Matale mass grave might contain skeletons of innocents as well as armed rebels.
4. The counter insurgency of SLA has been adopted by Indian government in india during anti-khalistan movement in Punjab. So this is nothing new. This has happened in india as well. Saying SL is the Uganda of Idi Amin is an attempt of distorting the whole picture and slinging mud using dead bodies for one’s own political agendas.
Therefore though this blog post try to seems to be sympathetic (unsuccessfully) to the ones died in Matale this is an attempt with a political agenda”
My reply.
Skeletons in The Mass Grave, Sri Lanka
1.For points 1 to 3.
I have clearly mentioned in the post that the dead could have been.
“It could be the result of the standoff between JVP and The Government, LTTEand Government, or The Marxists or innocent Tamils.
Over 200 bodies were found at the last count”
The comment makes no sense as the writer has echoed my views on this aspect from the same blog!
Point 2 of the comment.
Khalistan. No body denies that there Operation Blue Star and the initiative was done in Public view and, mind you, Sikhs, the pillars of India, were a part of the Operation,
How many Tamil officers were in the Killing of the Tamils?
The writer says,
‘
The mass graves in matale and any other place in SL is a symbol of tormented past of SLn people. The good thing is SLn people have been resilient and built their lifes back whatever they went through in late 80s.’
Excellent! Not only the Sri Lankans kil;l the Tamils, Muslims but Sri Lankans as well.
If this can not be compared to Idi Amin Regime. shall I compare it with Emperor Asoka of lord Buddha?
The writer conveniently omits the fact in the post that,
‘As fate would have it ,that another activist who played the role of the ombudsman to the grieving parents, whose offspring had been snatched away by the State military apparatus and deadly para- military groups’ is now the President of Sri Lanka. When Mahinda Rajapaksa went to Geneva, he attempted to smuggle, concealed in a false compartment of his suitcase, the gory pictures of headless corpse of State terrorism in 1989-90. He was stopped at the airport and the photographs were confiscated..
Successive Sri Lankan Governments, including that of previously activist President Chandrika Kumaratunga, let past military atrocities be swept under the carpet, despite the fact that she herself led the campaign for the excavation of the suspected mass grave in Suriyakanda. That highly emotive campaign was the catalyst in Kumaratunga’s speedy rise to the Presidency of Sri Lanka…”
Ironically the source for this blog post is not a Tamil magazine or a News paper, but from a Sri Lanka paper
The recent WikiLeaks expose of US Embassy Cables have disclosed that AK Antony , Defense Minister of India was the one ,apart from Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Youth Congress Leader of the Emergency imposed Period in India,to oppose Sanjay Gandhi, the extra Constitutional Power Center at that time.
It is also credited with Jayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu,India with flushing out the LTTE in the State.
These facts we know and why AK Antony is in a prime post in the dispensation of Sonia Gandhi-enemy of enemy is my friend!
The curious fact is not these facts themselves , but who revealed this information to US Embassy officials.
Architects of Emergency in India, 1975.
“The cable quoted a private assessment given by a Times of India correspondent who covered the session to his editors. The reporter noted, “that, unlike AICC sessions earlier this year in Chandigarh and Delhi where there was heavy rush by ministers and other politicians to pay respects to Sanjay, this time an attitude of sullenness prevailed and aside from handful of hangers-on, there were few “foot kissers”.
How come this information reached the US Embassy Officials?
Now on Jayalalithaa,
Rajiv Killed By LTTE.
“A bureaucrat, who held a key security portfolio at the time, told post (embassy officials) that Jayalalithaa ordered him to do ‘whatever it takes to finish off the LTTE’ in Tamil Nadu, even if it required extrajudicial killings of LTTE associates in the state,” said a dispatch sent by the then US consul general in Chennai, Andrew T Simkin. The cable further added that she is an “iron lady” and “even her fiercest critics acknowledge that Jayalalithaa’s aggressive approach went a long way towards pushing the LTTE out of Tamil Nadu”.
In this case the informer is a Senior Bureaucrat from the Government of Tamil Nadu who was handling the LTTE issue!
Media and Bureaucrats as Informers to Foreign Government?
Story:
Editor of Maharashtra Times told US diplomats that foreign minister Y B Chavan confided to him that he was hearing increasing murmurs of dissatisfaction from Congressmen at the treatment being accorded Sanjay and the disdain being displayed for traditional Congress politicians.
The cable said at one point in Youth Congress session in Guwahati, its president Ambika Sonicomplained that Congressmen sometimes “obstructed” Youth Congress work: “their fear is that if the Youth Congress workers forge ahead by dint of their work, their chairs will be threatened. We do not want their chairs.”
Soni was made the YC president after Sanjay ousted Das Munshi. The cable described Soni as “an attractive, well-educated, outspoken but intellectually weak personality who has been working in the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) bureaucracy since 1969.”
Meanwhile, in Kerala, the faction led by Antony and a large section of people were very critical of Sanjay’s growing importance. A cable from the US embassy said that their impression was that “Sanjay Gandhi is not very popular in that state”
“On the contrary, the US mission officials had written to their bosses in April 1990 that then chief minister M Karunanidhi was tilting towards the LTTE. The cable sent almost a year before his government was dismissed, said his pro-LTTE stand was generating widespread controversy and dismay in Tamil Nadu, particularly in the light of his strained relations with the Tigers in the past.
He was burning bridges with Delhi because of his hardliner pro-Tamil Eelam stand, the cable said and added that it may be at significant political cost. The US mission also raised suspicion as to whether Karunanidhi had put up with the LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu out of fear for the terrorist group.
One should not discount the role of the government of India in supporting the LTTE. It should not have permitted the LTTE to operate from Indian soil, said G Parthasarathy, former diplomat, who was in Rajiv Gandhi’s office from 1986 to 1989. “Karunanidhi was viciously critical of the LTTE in the past. But once he returned to power in 1989, he turned an LTTE supporter,” said Parthasarathy. His mistake was that he allowed the constitutional machinery to break down in Tamil Nadu as LTTE ran riot, he said. The 1991 electoral verdict was against the LTTE and terrorism and Jayalalithaa was just fulfilling her constitutional duty in flushing them out, Parthasarathy added.
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