lanka

pararajasingha

2005-12-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Terrorism regardless of where ever it is prosecuted cannot survive without logistical support from outside and so it is with the terrorist activity in Sri Lanka. It is no secret that the the tiger movement is supported by the Tamil Nadu Liberators whose aspiration is to ressuruct the Chola Empire of which Sri Lanka is a part see http://www.dalitstan.org/tamil/

Of the estimated 3.2 million quoted more than 50 percent live outside the homeland. Batticaloa where Pararajasingham was murdered falls within the tiger home land claim which is contested by a Muslim majority. Cosequently there is enough reason to suspect that the Muslim community to be responsible.

Jayanathamoorthy's claim of trageting tamil political actors is a strategy adopted by terrorists and the tigers can claim the record with Rajiv Gandhi and a number of leading Sinhala politicians including including one president, several ministers and the attempted murder of ex President Chandrika.

EU recently made a declaration banning members of the LTTE travelling into Europe for they rightly identified it as a terrorit movement that survives through intimidation, balckmail, terror and coercion.

Tamil Rebels in Sri Lanka Rule Out Talks in Asia

2005-12-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

December 18, 2005
Tamil Rebels in Sri Lanka Rule Out Talks in Asia
By REUTERS
KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka, Dec. 17 (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebels on Saturday rejected a government offer to hold emergency talks in Asia aimed at averting a return to civil war, insisting that any meeting should be run by Norway, which brokered previous peace talks.
The new Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse, a hard-liner elected by the country's Sinhalese majority, has offered to meet the rebels for immediate talks in any Asian country, but not in Europe. He has also angered the rebels by rejecting their demand for an ethnic Tamil homeland outright.
S. P. Thamilselvan, leader of the rebels' political wing, accused the government of trying to freeze the group out of Europe and of trying to convince the European Union to list it as a banned terrorist organization.
"The first round of talks should be held in Norway," Mr. Thamilselvan told reporters in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi. He added that the rebels considered the government's position that talks should be held in an Asian country and that European countries should ban the rebel group "a coup attempt."
"Our people have established a certain place and status in those countries," he added, speaking of ethnic Tamils who live in Europe. He accused the government of seeking to "sever our relationship with the international community and sideline us."
The government, which announced its offer of talks in Asia on Friday after reconsidering its predecessors' refusal to hold talks outside Sri Lanka, was not immediately available for comment.
The Tigers have threatened to resume their two-decade struggle next year unless the government in Colombo delivers a plan for sharing power, saying that they are offering the last chance to avert a return to a war in which more than 64,000 people have been killed.
But both sides are poles apart, each bickering at the other through the news media. Political analysts say a surge in violence that has set off fears of a return to war is likely to continue.
Truce monitors from Norway on Saturday blamed the rebels for shooting at a military helicopter on Wednesday in the first attack on an aircraft since the cease-fire was signed in 2002. Rebel representatives have denied that they attacked the helicopter.
"As the small-arms fire against the helicopter originated from an area controlled by the L.T.T.E., the L.T.T.E. must bear responsibility," Hagrup Haukland, leader of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission which oversees the truce, said in a statement. He used the initials for the rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
"The L.T.T.E. is urged to do all in its power to avoid similar incidents in future as such incidents can lead to serious consequences jeopardizing the cease-fire," the statement said.
The truce is at its lowest ebb after a rash of killings culminated in two deadly fragmentation mine attacks that killed 14 soldiers earlier this month.
Suspected rebel fronts have since emerged, threatening to shoot soldiers. Sri Lankans in the northern Jaffna peninsula, which is hemmed in by rebel territory, fear they may have to flee and start their lives over yet again.
"We were displaced in 2000," said C. Raju, a 36-year-old schoolteacher. "Our house was totally destroyed. We repaired it."
"The present happenings point toward war," he added. "We have suffered enough, but we are used to this."

elton john union

2005-12-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

Sir Elton, 58, and Mr. Furnish, 43, have lived together since 1994, after meeting at a mutual friend's dinner party, but they have been legally prevented from making honest men of each other. That changed on Wednesday, when Britain's new civil partnership law took effect in England, allowing gay couples to legalize their relationships.

On Wednesday, he kept it dignified, arriving for the service at the Guildhall, in the shadow of Windsor Castle, wearing a dark suit and a diamond pin. Mr. Furnish, who is Canadian and makes films, also wore a dark suit.

Only a select few guests attended the Guildhall ceremony. Among those present were Mr. Furnish's black-and-white spaniel, Arthur, and the photographer Sam Taylor-Wood, who later described the ceremony as "beautiful" and "very emotional." Guests said the 20-minute service ended with a kiss.

Mr. Furnish and Sir Elton emerged from the Guildhall beaming, to cheers from onlookers. Although they did not kiss outside, robbing the tabloid photographers of the photograph of the day, they blew kisses at the crowd before sweeping into a black car and driving off. Sir Elton mouthed the words "I love you" in the general direction of the well-wishers.

world briefings NY times 12/22

2005-12-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

CANADA: ORGIES RULED LEGAL IN CLUBS The Supreme Court ruled that swingers clubs featuring group sex were legal since consensual partner swapping does not pose a threat to the public. The ruling on two clubs in Montreal said public sex was still indecent but that orgies in private were not. CLIFFORD KRAUSS (NYT)

Chad oil war

2005-12-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2005
Chadian Rebels Kill 100; Chad Blames Sudan
By LYDIA POLGREEN
DAKAR, Senegal Dec. 18 - At least 100 people were killed in an attack by a rebel group on a town in Chad near its border with Sudan, Chadian officials said, the latest violence to erupt on the long, porous border between the two troubled nations.
A rebel group made up largely of deserters from Chad's army attacked the town of Adré early Sunday morning, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, Chad's minister of information, told Reuters.
He blamed the Sudanese government, saying it backed the rebel group, known as the Rally for Democracy and Liberty. The group is demanding that President Idriss Déby of Chad step down.

2005-12-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Sharon, Health an Issue, to Face Netanyahu
By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Dec. 19 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel is expected to be released from the hospital on Tuesday with little damage from the mild stroke he had Sunday night, his doctors said Monday.
But how much damage the stroke has done to his chances for re-election on March 28 was a subject of much speculation, even as the party that Mr. Sharon abandoned, Likud, chose Benjamin Netanyahu as its leader on Monday. Mr. Sharon's new party, Kadima, is widely favored in the election, but questions about his health could alter the equati

Evo Morales Bolivian President

2005-12-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

December 20, 2005
Bolivia's Newly Elected Leader Maps His Socialist Agenda
By JUAN FORERO
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 19 -After his decisive win in the election for president on Sunday, the December 20, 2005
Bolivia's Newly Elected Leader Maps His Socialist Agenda
By JUAN FORERO
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 19 -After his decisive win in the election for president on Sunday, the Socialist indigenous leader, Evo Morales, vowed Monday to respect private property but repeated his pledge to increase state control over the energy industry and reverse an American-backed crusade against coca, the plant used to make cocaine.
Wearing his trademark black jeans and tennis shoes, Mr. Morales arrived in La Paz to begin laying the groundwork for an economic and political transformation that he says will give voice to the poor, indigenous majority that fueled his campaign. "The voice of the people is the voice of God," he said late Sunday, vowed Monday to respect private property but repeated his pledge to increase state control over the energy industry and reverse an American-backed crusade against coca, the plant used to make cocaine.
Wearing his trademark black jeans and tennis shoes, Mr. Morales arrived in La Paz to begin laying the groundwork for an economic and political transformation that he says will give voice to the poor, indigenous majority that fueled his campaign. "The voice of the people is the voice of God," he said late Sunday

DN editorial

2005-12-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

The LTTE should have realised by now the futility of waging war to achieve its objectives - both sides have gone down that path with no long term success. The only option is to let the peace process run its course to a conclusion that can fulfil the aspirations of all communities in the country.
You write some garbage for the futility is on our part for we have not the capacity to protect the soveriegnity and the territorial integrity of our country. The aremy defence service commanders are talking a lot of popy cock. They troops are being killed at will. If the army cannot afford the resources to equip the soldiers then they should be brought and not be dependent on philantrophy.
If the people who vote Mahinda into power has not lost faith in he should be able beef the defence svices with more recruits and then he should be able to contain the situation> This may not hold out unless India takes on some of the responsibility for what is happening up North.
The Alarmists claimed that over 50,000 took refuge in India most likley in the Tamil Nadu. How ws this engineered.

wakula

2005-12-07T20:44:00.001-08:00

Wakula
Tmail Nadu Liberation Movement website gives some inight to our `ethinic" problem. It is not ethinic but and extension of TNLD's aspirations of the Periya Tamil Nadu as they like to call it. This is long time coming for states contigous with the Tamil Nadu are not prepared to pander to the Nadu whims.
M has freaked out. The TNLM has got hime where they want him, giving them a free reign to their politic up north. They kill at will and old P is cluless as to what is going on. His days are numbered regardless, but then what else could he do. His fate will be that of Louis just that there want be a guillotine.
Without friends Our best best bet would be a grand coalition with the LTTE hoping that someday TNLM colonise us massacre our men and take our women as slaves to the greater glory of Periya Nadu. There then will be peace the peace that our kinsmen voted for..
Mahinda is nothing but a paper tiger in a lungi. cannot expect anything more from effeminate politicians intellectually sterile reday to please. Perhaps we ought to have seen through when he started bragging about the MChintana which is as hollow as the sarama that he wears.
My blog address is

wakula

2005-12-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

SOMINI SENGUPTA DIARY

2005-12-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

December 7, 2005
Risk of Renewed Conflict After 7 Sri Lankan Soldiers Are Killed

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Dec. 6 - In a second precision attack on the Sri Lankan Army in three days, two explosive devices, strapped to trees along the side of a road, struck a military tractor on Tuesday morning, killing seven soldiers, wounding an eighth and sharply raising the alarm over the prospect of renewed conflict in this country.
The attack on the soldiers, who had just finished delivering lunch to troops stationed at checkpoints along the peninsula, occurred two days after a land mine attack on another army tractor nearby, which killed seven soldiers. There were also grenade attacks reported near here Tuesday morning, as well as angry demonstrations against an army occupation of a college sports field. Streets were littered with the remains of burning tires, and at least at one crossroad, the shell of a car set ablaze. In many areas, shops remained shuttered.
The latest of the strikes in the Tamil-majority north and east in recent weeks represent the most serious escalation of tensions since the signing of a cease-fire in early 2002 between the Sri Lankan government and the ethnic Tamil rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Tamil Tigers have fought for an independent Tamil homeland for more than 20 years, and the recent attacks threaten to unravel the fragile cease-fire.
In a statement on Tuesday, the government blamed the Tamil Tigers for what it called "stealth attacks" under the cover of a truce.
Whether the attacks will provoke government retaliation is unclear. Sri Lanka's newly appointed army commander, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseca, blamed the Tamil Tigers for both attacks and acknowledged that communications between the warring parties had broken down. He added that his forces would be prepared to respond if necessary. "I hope to be a challenge to any terrorist activity in the country," General Fonseca told reporters in the capital, Colombo.
A Tamil Tigers spokesman denied the involvement of his group, according to Reuters.
The attacks come barely three weeks after the election for president in which Sri Lanka's majority ethnic Sinhalese elected a hard-liner, Mahinda Rajapakse. The new president has vowed to take a fresh look at the cease-fire agreement, which the Tamil Tigers are reluctant to do.
Responding to some of the recent attacks, Norwegian officials assigned to monitor the cease-fire warned of irrevocable damage to the already languishing peace process.
"There is a real danger that these disturbances and hostilities can spread and result in irreparable deterioration of security and prevent any real restoration of normalcy in the affected communities," the head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission, Hagrup Haukland, said in a statement on Sunday.
A streak of fuel, mixed with blood, marked the site of the explosion outside town here. The army tractor lay on the side of the road, no more than 60 feet from where it had been struck by what the police here surmised were two remote-controlled bombs. Three bodies were inside the tractor bed and another body was on a road just below. The bombs also blew out the windshield of a Swiss aid organization vehicle, the police said; none of the aid workers were injured.
The Jaffna peninsula in the island's north is under the control of the Sri Lankan government, and the Sri Lankan Army has a heavy presence here. But the Tamil Tigers wield considerable influence on its residents

Seven Army personnel killed in Jaffna blast

2005-12-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

by Ranil Wijayapala
The Government yesterday called upon the international community to exert maximum pressure on the LTTE after a LTTE claymore mine killed another seven Army personnel in Jaffna.
What is the sort of pressure that tha international community could exert on a renegade movement orchestartaed by the Madras based Tamil Nadu Liberation Movement. Their asipirations are not secret and mapped out their inmtentions with immeadiate ob jective of undermining Indian sovereignity to achieve in order to resusucitate the Chola Empire. Elam is part of ther grand plan and it and Prabhakaran is nothing more than a puppet in the scheme of things.
This proposition is a horrific thought but if the events over the past few years were examined critically then it cannot be otherwise. The war that Elamist brag about is that of covert operations and there is no doubt that it will escalate regardless peace inititives.
Our only salvation is to get India to adopt a hard line to contain Tamil Nadu Liberation activities.
Abesiri

United Nations

2005-12-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

UNITED NATIONS
ANNAN CANCELS TRIP OVER BUDGET Secretary General Kofi Annan canceled a two-week trip to Asia because of a looming impasse over a United States proposal to delay approval of the usual two-year budget and replace it with a four-month interim budget to push through reforms. Telling a staff meeting that the action would produce a "financial crunch," he said, "We should not take any initiative that will not only risk the reform, but also the ongoing activities, and that's one of the reasons I decided to stay here." Warren Hoge (NYT)

Govt. strongly condemns killing of six soldiers

2005-12-04T21:38:00.000-08:00

THE Government condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of six Army personnel in a claymore mine attack at Kondavil, in Jaffna at around 1 p.m. yesterday.

Lanka News

2005-12-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

The CFA that people talk and write of has no validity, for the simple reason that agreements should be binding and the very idea of agreements with terrorist is preposterous. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence to establish that the LTTE activities are being choreographed by the Tamil Nadu Liberation Movement and Mr P and T are nothing more than actors in the act. The aspirations of the Tamil Nadu Liberation is no secret -the resurrection of the failed Chola Empire. Amnesty International has got their act wrong in trying to get the terrosists into the fold. LTTE activity is nothing more than treachaery in that they are cahallenging the sovereignity through terrorism. AI before making declarations ought to do their home work failing AI credibility will be lost.

2005-12-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

While many in Southern Sri Lanka have failed to see that the Tamil community has suffered discrimination in a variety of ways at the hands of past central administrations and would, therefore, prefer to exercise a degree of control over their own lives, the Northern side has failed to appreciate that power devolution could be countenanced by Southern Sri Lanka only within firmly defined limits.

Who are these southerners that you refer who fail to see that the Tamils are discriminated and if so the nature of this discrimination. For want of reliable statistical data the southerners suffer from as much deprivation as the Tamils up north. The southerners are deprived of meaningful education, deprived of essential soicial services, substandard infrastrucre and near zero employment prospects. The only right that they have is to exercise their democratic rights to their share of the common wealth they are described as sinhala chauvanist. The past government and the NGO's live off the backs of the poor in the south. The picture should change if Mahinda is prepared to give the initiative poor southerners
Mahinda is wasting his time to resolve the `ethinic conflict' by trying to negotiate with mr P who is nothing but a puppet of the Tamil Nadu aspirations who see Sri lank as a part of the great Chola empire http://www.dalitstan.org/tamil/ and we should accept this as fact and
accordingly.

Farmer leaves body to animals

2005-12-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

An Indian farmer has written his will - leaving his body to wild animals.
New World Laldingliana, 46, wants his remains to be devoured by animals after his death.
Mr Laldingliana, from Kawkulh in Mizoram, registered his will at a magistrate's court in the state capital Aizawl.
Asian News International reports he wrote in his will: "I, New World Laldingliana, have decided to give my body to wild animals when my life on earth is over to show that I had given my life for them.
"One of my greatest wishes is to throw a feast for the wild animals in Phawngpui forest with my own body. As such, I have made my will without any coercion or motivation from anyone."
Magistrate Lalbiakzama described the will as "unique".

Fury of the Elam Nation

2005-11-26T22:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.eelamnation.com/news_item.asp?NewsID=2980

Supremo talk

Sri Lanka’s Hardline hawkish President, as well all his racist-chauvinist supporters who voted for him, awaits the Tamil Leader’s speech. The so-called Prabhaharan's Chintanaya.Never in the 57-year history of the Island has a un elected leader from a minority community attracted so much attentions from a group of not only the racist-chauvinist Singhala Buddhist, but the entire nation, as well as two million Sri Lankan Diaspora around the world. There are also interest in several important world capitals, where nearly 10 billion dollars worth of foreign aid, grants, and loans, as well as billions of dollars worth of foreign investment is dependent upon the course this Tamil leader will direct the country

President was elected by default, thanks to the action of Prabhaharan.

Given the choice and knowing well Rajapkase will make a lot of mistakes LTTE felt the quickest way to achieve and accomplish their goals was by having Rajapakse as the President. From what we have seen Rajapakse has not disappointed the LTTE. Therefore, Ranil Wickramasinghe should not be too disappointed that he did not become the President now, as he is still young at 56. He can become President at 62 or earlier and carry on until 74. Since he was the better person and candidate LTTE did not choose him to conduct a ferocious war and attrition in the next 6 years. Ranil can preside over Sri Lanka when it needs a peacetime time President to lead the Singhalese to prosperity than to preside over an era of death and destruction as will happen under Rajapakse

As per the election mandate, the new president cannot budge from his unitary state, No P-TOMS, No Norway, More India, strong negotiations with LTTE position, basically a war mongering position. Now he has also said no right to self determine nor Tamil homeland. This is exactly the beginning Prabhaharan had pre planned. That was why Prabhaharan chose Rajapakse instead of Ranil Wickramasinghe. LTTE would expose the GOSL very easily and quickly, and demonstrate the impossibility and futility of any future or further negotiations. LTTE is not going to provide major deadlines for war as every one expects. Prabhaharan might issue some deadline for the full implementation of the CFA nevertheless. This should have been done many years ago and not now.

Plea Agreement in Bisengimana Case Rejected

2005-11-24T14:22:00.000-08:00

ICTR/INFO-9-2-456.ENArusha, 18 November 2005

In the agreement the accused had pleaded guilty to count III murder as a crime against humanity and to count IV extermination as a crime against humanity. The accused pleaded not guilty to all the other counts. In response, the Prosecutor had invited the Chamber to dismiss the charges and render a verdict of not guilty in regard to the counts to which Bisengimana had pleaded not guilty.
The amended indictment alleges that Bisengimana committed the crimes in Bugesera region in Kigali-Rural prefecture. It alleged that the accused organised, planned and participated in the killing of thousands people who had sought refuge at Musha church in Gikoro. Bisengimana is also charged with having instigated a small crowd of Hutu civilians gathered in Musha cellule, Gikoro commune to rape Tutsi women. Several Tutsi women are alleged to have been raped as a result

brutally chopped

2005-11-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

23 Nov 2005 02:04:15 GMT
Date : 2005-11-23 LTTE cadres chopped the hand of the voter from Kilinochchi Colombo, 23 November, (Asian Tribune.com): The LTTE cadres brutally chopped the one hand of the person from Kilinochchi who voted in the last Presidential elections to Ranil Wickremasinghe, the UNP Presidential candidate. The hand of the person was chopped publicly in Kilinochchi by the LTTE cadres in the presence of hundreds of onlookers. According to a source, this punishment was meted out in public to scare others not to disobey the Aanai - edict of the LTTE in the future. The said person from Kilinochchi voted at the cluster polling station for Kilinoichchi. His vote was the only vote cast from Kilinochchi in the last Presidential election. After the voting, he was contacted by the BBC correspondent and asked were you not afraid of voting? He said boldly that voting was his right and he quipped ?if anyone wants to take my life for voting let them take it.? - Asian Tribune -

This sounds a story too good to be true. Ironically he voted for Ranil is this statistically significant, I mean would the whole tamil population voted UNP. Where there is good yarn the BBC is there.

2005-11-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

Savaged by TigersA Tamil boycott has cheated Sri Lanka of a better future
Those who have accused the separatist Tamil Tigers of bad faith in peace negotiations can draw powerful evidence from Sri Lanka’s presidential election. The brutally enforced boycott of the polls in the predominantly Tami north and east of the island meant that, in some constituencies, less than 1 per cent of the population voted. The result was that thousands of votes likely to have been cast for Ranil Wickremesinghe, who as former Prime Minister signed a truce with the Tigers in 2002, were not. As a result, his rival and the incumbent Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, just won the overall vote.
For the stuttering peace process, this is a dismal result. The winner, parading his nationalist credentials to the Sinhala majority, insisted throughout the campaign that he would not accept a new federal constitution or any powersharing with the minority Tamils. Now he is calling for a face-to-face meeting with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the inflexible and reclusive leader of the Tigers. This looks as unlikely as the chance that the nationalist Sinhalese, who ensured the victory, will allow him any room for manoeuvre.
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It is clear that the Tigers engineered Mr Wickremesinghe’s defeat because his success in appealing to the major-ity of war-weary Tamils over the heads of the terrorists was proving effective. Breakaway factions from Mr Prabhakaran’s group duly condemned the Tigers’ tactics as well as their refusal to compromise in the Norwegian-brokered peace talks. The Tigers’ hard core retaliated with assassinations and suppression of all dissent. But a return to power of Mr Wickremesinghe, who has a shrewd grasp of negotiating tactics, would have put huge pressure on the Tigers to continue the conversation, contemplate a bargain and widen the split with the hardline leadership.
It is not only the truce that has been jeopardised by the election result. Mr Rajapakse is an old-fashioned socialist and a populist ill-suited to tackle the island’s economic problems — high oil prices, double-digit inflation and the failure to overcome the effects of the tsunami. During his campaign he made a series of pledges as irresponsible as they were extravagant, offering subsidies, grants and tax breaks and promising to cut the prices of products ranging from milk powder to fertiliser. If these are put into effect, the huge fall in the Colombo stock market that greeted his victory could be only the first signal of a global loss of confidence in the economy.
The new President has promised to create 2.5 million jobs and cut prices on the back of this year’s current forecast of a 6 per cent growth. But without corresponding movement on the peace issue, this seems Utopian. Sri Lanka’s record in reconstruction after the tsunami is poor — largely because of the political impasse over the distribution of aid in the Tamil regions. Resolving this, and preventing the Tigers’ leadership from taking the country back to civil war, must be a priority. In 22 years of war, Sri Lanka has lost nearly 65,000 people. The President must set aside his populist rhetoric, confront the country’s real needs and adjust his policies accordingly.

What I remember of the Times was that it stood for conservative policy -brittania rules the waves- Anyhow this type of editorial comment would have been appropriate during the height of colonialism time when the times ran advertisemnets for wet mothers etc.
Anyhow getting back to the point - what is the essence of democarcy? If people are given the opportunity to exercise their democartic rights and failing to exercise their democratic rights is not the failiure of the process.
LTTE has been labeeled as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European. EU most recent declaration has banned their travel into europe. P is a wanted man for crime against humanity though the likes of Mr Wickramnasinghe is not prpared to accept it. Rajp[akse if he means busines then any future negotiation with tamils should be legitimate representation.

People even with a smattering of politics will not talk of old fashinoned socialism. Lanka survives through loaded food aid programs which gives little incentive for local production. The only meas through which she is capable getting out of i sthrough self determination. This means providing employment to un employed and under employed rather than dole out money out of philanthropy. Slogan shoudl be work for what you eat.
The share market is loaded with speculation and caters to services with zero contribution to development

EU report on Election

2005-11-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

* EU poll monitors condemn Tamil Tigers for preventing Tamils from voting in Sri Lanka Nov 19 (AP) COLOMBO- The European Union's chief election monitor on Saturday condemned Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels for allegedly blocking ethnic Tamils from voting in the country's recent presidential election. John Cushnahan, who led an 83-member observation mission, said at a news conference that Thursday's voting in the Tamil-majority north and east was "marred by violence accompanied by an enforced boycott" by the Tigers

Sri Lanka Votes, Torn by War and Tsunami

2005-11-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

November 18, 2005

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Nov. 17 - Sri Lankans voted for a president on Thursday, in a race that came to represent a stark choice for a nation battered by more than two decades of war: which way lies peace and prosperity?
The road maps voters were offered could not have been more different. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, 59, a veteran leftist who has joined hands with Sinhalese nationalists, proposes greater nationalization of the economy and rejects sharing power with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, an ethnic separatist movement that runs a quasi state in the north.
His chief opponent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, 56, is a former prime minister who is known as a free-market advocate and the architect of a peace deal with the Tamil guerrilla group.
[On Friday, Mr. Rajapakse claimed victory based on a partial count, Reuters reported.]
Official results are expected on Friday.
The Elections Department estimated the turnout to be as high as 75 percent among the 13.3 million voters, but there were no polling places inside guerrilla-held territory, and those in Jaffna, the largest town where the Tamils predominate, were deserted.
The Tamil Tigers did not call a formal boycott, but election monitors said the group's supporters had sought to dissuade fellow Tamils, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, from voting. The Sinhalese make up more than 70 percent.
No matter who wins the presidential contest, there is already one casualty. The credibility of a cease-fire between the government and the rebels, brokered by Norway in 2002, has plummeted in recent months. Dissident Tamil politicians have fallen prey to assassins' bullets, and rival Tamil armed factions in the east are fighting one another in broad daylight.
The death toll in the conflict, which began in 1983, is more than 60,000. The Norwegian officials who monitor the cease-fire have documented nearly 200 killings in the first 10 months of this year, more than three times last year's number. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was killed in August, and while they deny the charge, the Tamil Tigers have been accused in his death.
Peace talks stalled more than two years ago. Whatever hopes for reconciliation had been fostered by the tsunami last December, which killed more than 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, have since been crushed. Even a deal to share reconstruction funds fell apart earlier this year.
"My husband is a cynic," Padmini Nanayakkara, 74, said Thursday morning as she stepped out of a polling place here in the capital. "He'll tell you it doesn't make any difference."
As if on cue, her husband, Vesak, 85, piped in: "Nobody can do anything in this country. It's gone to the dogs."
Mrs. Nanayakkara picked up where she left off. "I think it's a critical election," she said. "If you go to war again, the country will be really destroyed."
Shaz Muhammad, 28, declared Thursday's vote to be the last chance for his country's politicians. "This is my last," he said. "I'm fed up with elections. It's a crucial one; I thought I better vote this time. It's peace or war this time." He said he had voted for Mr. Wickremesinghe.
A few minutes later, a supporter of Mr. Rajapakse walked out of the voting booth and dismissed such talk as fear-mongering. Y. G. Banda, 68, rejected Mr. Wickremesinghe as the representative of "an aristocratic party" and said he could not be trusted to bring a swift peace.
Victory may swing in large part on the Tamils and their ability to vote. But preliminary estimates from the Tamil belts of the north and east looked bleak. Where polling places were erected, on the outskirts of Tamil Tiger country, tires were burned on the roads in what seemed to be an attempt to keep voters away.
"An almost total absence of participation in the polls and an atmosphere of violence and intimidation in much of the north and east have significantly affected these elections," said People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, an independent group that stationed poll monitors across the country. "It has compromised the democratic process and institutions."
There were grenade attacks on the eve of election day in Jaffna and the restive eastern town of Batticaloa. A deputy election commissioner, W. P. Sumanasiri, said late Thursday night that turnout among Jaffna's 702,000 voters was well below 1 percent.
The winner of the election will shape the direction of negotiations with the insurgents. "There is a constituency in the country, among the Sinhalese community in particular, that has concerns, fears, doubts about power-sharing," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a research and advocacy organization here. "What Rajapakse is doing is tapping into those fears."
But a vote for Mr. Rajapakse should not be read as a nod to war, some have said. "The Sinhalese are cautious and conservative," Nilan Fernando, the country representative for the Asia Foundation, argued. "They want a strong man as president," he said, but "they certainly don't want a resumption of war. They want peace talks to resume."
Mr. Rajapakse has promised voters he will revise the 2002 peace accord and rejected giving power to the Tamil rebels. Questions remain whether Mr. Rajapakse will soften his position if elected, to avoid a full-scale resumption of the civil war, and whether the Tigers would use a victory by him to justify intransigence of their own. A breakaway Tamil faction whose forces operate in the government-controlled east has blessed Mr. Rajapakse's bid.
"It has to be an honorable peace," Mr. Rajapakse said after casting his ballot, The Associated Press reported.
As for Mr. Wickremesinghe, his strengths are his promises to revitalize the economy and his role as a conciliator, but his greatest liability may be that many Sinhalese feel that he was too lenient with the Tigers while he was prime minister. Tamil voters are critical to his chances, so he would be hurt by a weak turnout among them.

A Hawk Narrowly Wins Sri Lanka Presidential Election

2005-11-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

November 19, 2005

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Nov. 18 - Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan prime minister who spent his campaign for president honing a hawk's reputation, narrowly won the race on Friday, raising new questions about how this island nation, which has suffered more than 20 years of civil war, would achieve peace.
Election officials in Sri Lanka on Friday afternoon declared Mr. Rajapakse the winner of Thursday's presidential election with 50.29 percent of the vote, as his supporters chanted, "Patriot!" outside the election department headquarters here in the capital. His chief rival, the former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, captured 48.4 percent of the vote, according to official results.
Known for his more accommodating view on the peace process with the nation's Tamil separatist rebels, Mr. Wickremesinghe appeared to have suffered in part from a near no-show at polls in Jaffna, the northern town with the country's largest population of ethnic minority Tamils. Election officials declined to authorize fresh balloting there, as Mr. Wickremesinghe demanded, his campaign office said.
The election appeared to have been deftly manipulated by a force that was absent from the contest itself: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the ethnic separatist group that has fought for an independent Tamil nation for 22 years.
On one hand, the crimes the Tamil Tigers are accused of, including the assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, last August, appeared to have pushed many Sinhalese, the majority ethnic group, into the arms of the hard-line Mr. Rajapakse. On the other, as election monitors in the largely Tamil north and east pointed out, violence and intimidation by Tamil Tiger supporters kept Tamil voters, believed to be a crucial base of support for Mr. Wickremesinghe, from going to the polls.
In other words, the Tamil Tigers, without issuing a formal boycott of polls, seem to have rearranged the political map and helped install a president whose ascendance makes the resumption of conflict far more likely - at least if his election promises are to be believed.
A veteran left-of-center politician, Mr. Rajapakse has vowed to scrap a 2002 peace deal with the Tamil Tigers to draft a new one, and has resisted the idea of allowing them any form of local autonomy. He has also rejected an accord, struck after months of negotiation, to share tsunami reconstruction money with the rebels, who operate as a de facto government in the territory they control.
Last December's disaster killed more than 30,000 people on the island, and the joint financing arrangement was seen as the first steps toward a lasting reconciliation. Parts of the accord were struck down in August by the country's Supreme Court.
"I will bring about an honorable peace to the country respecting all communities," Mr. Rajapakse said at a news conference after the official announcement of his election victory.
No sooner had he claimed victory than Bloomberg News reported the steepest drop in Sri Lankan stock prices in 18 months, with the benchmark Colombo All-Share Index declining by 7.2 percent. Mr. Rajapakse, who joined hands with the country's leading Marxist and Sinhalese nationalist forces, was elected on a platform of economic nationalization. He is to be sworn in on Saturday.
The fate of the peace process depends in large part on how he handles the Tamil Tigers once he becomes president. He has promised direct talks with their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, but told voters that he would not meet their chief demand: power-sharing.
"If he approaches it as he stated during the elections, then the future of the peace process is very bleak," said Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Mr. Wickremesinghe, who prepared the peace accord that Mr. Rajapakse has vowed to revamp, had said he was amenable to a federal solution that would give greater autonomy to the country's Tamil minority in the north and east.
Equally important in the coming weeks is Mr. Prabhakaran's reaction. It remains unclear whether Mr. Rajapakse's victory will embolden the Tamil Tigers, a feared guerrilla group that commands a fleet of ground, sea and air forces, to turn up the volume on truculence. Mr. Prabhakaran is expected to make his annual address at the end of the month.
The Tamil Tigers did not have to call for a boycott of the election. Turnout figures released Friday spoke volumes for their influence. No polling stations could be set up in territory controlled by the guerrillas. In Jaffna, officially in government hands but under heavy influence of the Tamil Tigers, barely 1.2 percent of the more than 700,000 voters turned out to the polls. In eastern Batticaloa, also a heavily Tamil town where the Tamil Tigers are challenged by a breakaway faction, voter turnout was 48.5 percent. In both areas, Mr. Wickremesinghe won 70 percent or more of the vote.
The election ends the rule of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose attempt to extend her tenure was struck down by the country's highest court in August.

Missing Million

2005-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

The contention that President Elect Mahinda Rajapakse bein hawkish (whatever it means) is absurd and misconstrued and the media has gone into a frenzy for want of something to write about. I dont think Mahinda ought to negotiate for peace with a terrorist wanted for questioning in connection with the Indian Prime Minister, and hundreds butchered on the pretext of self determination.

It is important that Mahinda adopt a herd line in an order to see that law and order prevail. It is no secret that Prabhakaran holds onto power through intimidation and coercion is excecuted through a network of gundas. Anyhow of the 13 million reported registered voters about 15 percent or amounting to about 1.5 million or more should be tamil. The voting prefrence of the tamils living outside Jaffna would have been for Ranil. Also the election commissioner should give serious consideration to the duplicate registration of voters.