Size of the County or the strength of Economy or Military Might has no relevance.
Now the Congress is asking for votes for a Stronger Government in New Delhi.
Strong for more Scams?
This is what Sri Lanka has done pre and post Resolution on Genocide, the killing of the Tamils in Lanka.
Valueless ,Inhuman ,Spineless and cowardly act
“Sri Lanka’s president ordered the release on Friday of 98 Indian fishermen detained for poaching as a “goodwill gesture” after New Delhi abstained in a vote on a U.N. resolution that approved an international inquiry into alleged war crimes on the island.
India, Sri Lanka’s largest trade partner, backed two prior resolutions, but on Thursday unexpectedly took a neutral stand on the demand for a probe into actions by both Sri Lankan state forces and Tamil rebels during the 26-year conflict that ended in 2009.
“The president ordered the release of all Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture,” Mohan Samaranayaka, a spokesman for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told Reuters.
A total of 23 states voted in favour of the U.S.-led resolution, 12 against and 12 abstained. Among those who voted against were China and Pakistan, while India withheld its vote over concerns that the investigation would be “intrusive”.”
Arguing that the Northern Provincial Council elections was not conducted for the interests of the Eezham Tamil nation but rather was coordinated by the US-Indian establishments for diverting the attention of the world from the genocide taking place, Umar, activist with the May 17 Movement, stated that the vote of the Eezham Tamils for the TNA was cast against the genocidal Sri Lankan state. Without considering this, some are interpreting the vote as being against the demand of Tamil Elam and a legitimization of unitary Sri Lanka”
It also appears that the party that has won the elections seems to be maintaining a studied silence on the Genocide issue.
The Tamil Groups, as usual, are speaking in multiple voices.
While one group , the one that has won the elections, seems to go soft on Rajapakshe Government, post-election,another Group maintains that the victory is due to the Displaced Tamils in US and elsewhere and are voicing a hard-line approach to the Genocide issue.
One group insists on a unitary Government, another in the Federal set up with more powers short of a separate Nation, Elam,yet another wants nothing than separate Elam.
Contrary to what one has expected, that of trying to alleviate the sufferings of the Tamils in Sri Lanka every one seems to be engaged in one up-manship, which has the root cause for the failure to prevent the Tamil Genocide and realization of Tamil Elam.
Rajapakshe, quietly used this opportunity to get a Bill passed empowering the Government to grab any land, a move which was scuttled by a Supreme Court Judge, who was impeached,, a Supreme Court Judge was installed and the The passage of the Bill was felicitated.
The Government is emboldened by the bickering to such an extent that it has announced it was not bothered about Navaneetham Pillai’s Report of Genocide.
“The Sri Lankan government on Sunday said it would not accept UN Rights Chief Navy Pillai’s deadline to make progress on its rights accountability record.
The country’s Foreign Secretary Karunatillake Amunugama said the government would according to its own plan. “We will submit our progress to the next March session of the UNHRC. We have already completed most of the points raised by her while some of it cannot be implemented,” he said.
UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Pillay told the UNHRC that Sri Lanka has failed to show progress on its rights accountability record. If it fails to improve the record by March next year it could lead to an international inquiry.”
Sri Lanka has already figured in two UNHRC resolutions.
In a curious twist Navi Pillai watered down her earlier report on Genocide that,In this Update, she commends the excellent cooperation extended by the government. She gives credits to the impressive human rights achievement by the government with the help of the international community. She says that vast majority of the internally displaced persons had been settled another instance of achievement by the government. She is pleased that the government has taken the initiative to invite the Special Rapporteur from UN.
She thinks that the recent elections to the Northern Provincial Council will bring about better devolution of power. On the large military presence in Tamil areas, compulsory acquisition of private land and the role of military in civilian areas, she contends that all these are not simple and straightforward issues that could be resolved overnight. She thinks that these are complex issues that would have to be tackled through the initiatives of the various responsible ministries. Of all the internal mechanisms, she praises the LLRC. She is pleased that the government has accepted a number of its recommendations; for instance, the separation of the police from the Ministry of Defense. Touching on LTTE, she said that the outfit should be held responsible for war crimes.
Navi Pillay does not talk about the mass killings of Tamils during the last stages of the war. More than 100,000 Tamils were mercilessly killed by the Sri Lankan troops. Is she blind to this episode? While she talks about the intimidation of minorities, she avoids even mentioning the mass murder of Tamils. If she can gloss over such an incontrovertible fact, then she must definitely have a particular agenda in talking about human rights in Sri Lanka.
She mentions about the LTTE in relation to war crimes. What about the murderous Sinhala regime that decimated hundreds and thousands of Tamils with the support of the international community. Who raped hundreds of Tamil women? What about the thousands of Tamil prisoners languishing in prisons without any form of support? She praises the recent elections for the Northern Provincial Council, but what about the systematic attacks against candidate Ananthi?”
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.”
Following is a short History of the genocide of The Tamils in SriLanka.
Successive Lankan Governments have used the Tamil Card to gain power and used terror against the Tamils to sustain their power.
Excerpts from different sources to get a fair view.
Tamil genocide Sri Lanka
Stephen Senenayake was the first Prime Minister of Ceylon, when Ceylon became independent on 4 February 1948. The first Act he introduced in the parliament was the Ceylon Citizen Bill on 15 September 1948, that effectively disenfranchised the Indian Tamils. The Indian Tamils are also known as Hill Country Tamils, Up-country Tamils or simplyIndian Tamils.
The are descended from workers sent from South India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Some became merchants and others service providers in the towns. These Tamil-speakers mostly live in the central highlands and also major urban areas and in the Northern province.
To create the plantation industry they toiled through the malaria infested jungle. In the whole process a good percentage of them died. The plantation sector economy brought prosperity to Sri Lanka but socially and economically their standard of living is below that of the national average. These people are now disfranchised That is justice in Sri Lanka.
D.S Senanayake was respected by Sinhalese and some Muslims. However, Tamils were not happy with his citizenship laws, which disenfranchised virtually all Tamils of recent Indian origin living in the central highlands. He set in motion the first ethnic cleansing, which was followed by all Sinhalese leaders thereafter.
Another Sinhalese leader, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaikeorganised the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1936. In 1946 he backed the United National Party (UNP) and held ministerial posts from 1947 to 1951. In 1951, Bandaranaike led his Sinhala Maha Sabha faction out of the UNP and established the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Bandaranaike became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections in a landslide merely by emphasising on the language issue. He made Sinhala the official language of the country, downgrading the official status of Tamil andEnglish and promoting socialist, anti-Western policies that profoundly changed the course of Ceylonese politics in the following decades.
His policies galvanised the Tamils, and under the leadership of Thanthai Chelvanayagam, peaceful demonstrations were held. These were brutally suppressed by the Sinhalese thugs and police. Then followed a series of riots, the first of which was in 1956. This was the beginning of the present ethnic problem. This was the beginning of the second ethnic cleansing; the driving out of the Sri Lankan Tamils, who were in Sri Lanka for more than 2,000 years, so that the entire island would become a Sinhala Buddhist country….
The act was strongly opposed by certain sections of the Sinhalese community led by Jeyawardene, and was eventually torn up by Prime Minister Bandaranaike in May 1958. The abandonment of the pact led to tensions between the two communities, resulting in a series of outbreaks of ethnic violence in the country which eventually spiralled into the 26 year Sri Lankan Civil War. Prime Minister Bandaranaike’s later attempts to pass legislation, similar to the agreement, was met by strong opposition, and led to his assassination by a Buddhist monk in 1959.
After his death his wife, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, took over the government. The most important thing she did was to find a solution to the festering problem of the Indian Tamils.
When Sri Lanka disfranchised the Indian Tamils the government of India had made it clear to Sri Lanka that it would not accept responsibility for those Indians whose applications for citizenship were rejected by the Sri Lanka. Discussions between the two governments continued, and in October 1964 agreement was reached between Sirima Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and Lal Bhadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India, called the “Sirima Shastri Pact” in 1964
The ideology of the Sri Lankan regime uses a mythologised history drawing from religious texts to assert that the whole of the island has been Sinhala and Buddhist by divine sanction for 2500 years — since being visited by Buddha.
While it is true that Sinhala Buddhist societies have existed in Sri Lanka for over two millenia, the Tamil presence also dates from antiquity. While the Sinhala-chauvinist official history maintains that the Tamils were later invaders, this is not at all clear from the actual historical and archaelogical record.
What is clear is that for centuries Tamil and Sinhala kingdoms coexisted on the island. When Portuguese traders visited the island in 1505 there was a northern Tamil kingdom and two Sinhala kingdoms.
By 1619, the Portuguese had changed from traders to colonialists and began overthrowing the indigenous kingdoms, bringing in three centuries of European rule, which created an economy based on plantation monoculture for export and a single state covering the island. The plantation economy and unitary state are at the centre of the current conflict.
The Sinhala-chauvinist ideology is modern, originating in the late 19th century amongst Buddhist monks who were anxious to defend their theocratic privileges from British encroachment. In the 20th century, nationalist and socialist groups developed that were secular and multinational in character.
However, when the British granted independence in 1948, politicians used populist appeals to Sinhala chauvinism to distract from their inability to satisfy popular expectations.
Immediately after independence, a million Tamil plantation workers lost their citizenship and right to vote. A majority of these stateless Tamils were deported in the 1960s and ’70s.
In the lead-up to the 1956 elections, the Buddhist clergy launched a racist anti-Tamil movement that culminated in the first pogrom against Tamils. It also proved that the clergy could swing elections and secured their position in the political elite.
Following the 1956 elections, laws were enacted making Sinhala the only official language. This excluded most Tamils from public sector employment.
A number of Tamil political parties contested elections on a platform of equal rights. Their inability to prevent further discrimination created sentiment for Tamil independence. By 1980 the Tamil United Liberation Front, that called for self-determination, had become the largest opposition party in the Sri Lankan parliament.
The 1983 pogrom, which took 3000 lives and caused 150,000 Tamils to flee abroad, became the watershed that caused a majority of Sri Lankan Tamils to support the armed struggle for independence by the LTTE, waged since the 1970s.
The SLA’s war against the Tamil population has involved some of the world’s worst war crimes. Civilians have been targetted: orphanages and hospitals have been regularly bombed. Starvation sieges have been imposed, including after the December 26, 2004 tsunami.
Torture, rape and random killings have been perpetrated by the military and pro-government paramilitaries.
Underpinning this war has been Western military aid and political support. This reflects Sri Lanka’s strategic significance, but also that the military, political and theocratic elites that rule Sri Lanka maintain Western domination of the economy that still follows the colonial export-oriented model.
The major suppliers of arms are the US and Israel. Israel provides Kfir jets and illegal cluster munitions and the Israeli secret police, Mossad, train Sri Lankan special forces and paramilitary death squads.
Black, Sophie 2009 “Meet Alex and Brindha: a media savvy bunch of boat people,”http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/10/16/meet-alex-and-brindha-a-media-savvy-bunch-of-boat-people/.
53 Eezham Tamil boat refugees, seeking asylum in Australia but driven to Indonesia, are on a fast-unto-death protest on-board their vessel for the past four days, against the decision of the Indonesian authorities to hand them over to Sri Lanka Navy. The refugees claim that they will be persecuted, even killed, if handed over to the SL Navy. On Tuesday, they sent SOS messages to their families, relatives and journalists in the island to urge the international human rights groups to address their plight. A university student representative in Jaffna confirmed that there were genuine refugees needing international protection in the boat. The refugees heading for Christmas Island of Australia were taken to Indonesia on 28 August by that country’s navy after their boat ran out of fuel in mid sea.
After a dangerous travel on seas for 20 days, their health is steadily deteriorating over the hunger strike and casualties are feared if appropriate action is not taken, sources informed. Among the asylum seekers are 2 disabled persons, 4 women and 3 children.
In the meantime, a spokesman for the refugees in the boat has told reporters in Jaffna and Colombo through a phone conversation that they had started off from a dock near Chennai on 09 August 2012. According to his statement, the boat ran out of fuel on 19 August
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