As many as 208,820 people living in the areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers and who are eligible to vote at Thursday’s Presidential election have to travel anything between 20 to 100 kilometers to clustered polling stations in Army-controlled areas, Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said Monday.

Voters in the Mulaitivu District, under the control of LTTE, have to travel such distance and hundreds of buses and other vehicles will be provided by the Elections Commissioner to enable them to commute to clustered stations in government controlled areas.

Around 20 million rupees will be spent as transport charges and for building cluster polling stations for those living in the LTTE controlled areas, Chief Accountant, Election Secretariat H. A. S. Hapuarachchi said.

A recent Supreme Court decision has ruled that cluster polling centres should be located at least 1,000 meters away from the Forward Defence Lines of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

According to the Assistant Commissioner of Elections, Batticaloa, T. Krishanan Anandalingam, there are 318,728 persons in the district eligible vote under the electoral register 2004 of which 80,443 living in LTTE controlled areas.

There will be 353 polling stations in the district including 88 cluster polling stations for voters in the LTTE controlled areas. Staff at these polling stations will be Tamil speaking public servants selected from the Colombo District.

Vanni District Assistant Commissioner A. S. Karunanidhi said there were 66,596 registered voters in the Mulativu District, of which 65,504 were living in the LTTE controlled area.

There will be 50 polling centres for this district with 49 cluster polling stations at Omanthai. Some of the voters here will also have travel about 100 kilometers to reach the polling stations.

The Mannar District has 78, 906 voters of which 16,131 are living in LTTE controlled areas. This district will have 67 polling stations of which 12 will be cluster polling stations.

Assistant Commissioner, Trincomalee District, M. M. S. K. Bandara, said there were 238,755 registered voters in the district with 278 polling station and 2 cluster polling stations at Kattaparichchan for 12,000 voters living in the LTTE held areas. These voters will have to travel up to 20 kilometers to reach their cluster polling stations.

There are 791,938 registered voters in the Jaffna District and 96,328 voters in the LTTE-controlled Kilinochchi District.

The total number of polling stations in Jaffna District with 224 cluster polling stations and 103 cluster polling stations for Kilinochchi Distirct located at Muhamalai and at Vadamarchchi East, Assistant Commissioner for Jaffna District P. Kuganathan said.

Members of Sri Lanka’s security forces and Army-backed paramilitaries, along with underworld thugs, were this week intimidating voters in the North and east, paving the way for fraud in favour of Premier Mahinda Rajapakse during Thursday’s Presidential poll, press reports and opposition politicians said this week.

Two of Sri Lanka’s most prominent Army-backed Tamil paramilitary groups have endorsed Mr. Rajapakse, the Sinhala nationalists’ candidate of choice, in Thursday’s election.

The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) has been spearheading Mr. Rajapakse’s campaign in the Jaffna peninsula for several weeks now. And this week, Karuna, a renegade Tamil Tiger commander who defected to the military in April 2004, this week also endorsed the Premier, whose campaign is built on a ultra Sinhala nationalist and anti-LTTE platform.

“Mahinda Rajapakse has said he will review the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. This is an important issue for us. He has also said he will commence talks with all parties to find a solution to the ethnic problem. This too is important for us”, Karuna was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.

The EPDP last month urged all Tamil speakers to vote for the Premier - whose campaigning kicked off with electoral pacts with hardline Sinhala parties ruling out power-sharing to resolve the island’s ethnic conflict.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP), whose candidate, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is Rajapakse’s main challenger in the election to replace outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga, this week warned of efforts to subvert the polls in Jaffna, where the EPDP is active under the aegis of the military.

“We have documents and other evidence to prove government’s attempt to disrupt the poll in the Jaffna district. Government leaders have planned to send about three hundred army deserters to Jaffna by private commercial flights,” UNP official Sarath Munasinghe told reporters.

“Some senior officials of the three armed forces are also involved in the sabotage attempt,” Mr. Munasinghe, a former spokesman for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), also said.

Sri Lanka’s Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said the actual number of voters in the northern Jaffna peninsula are much less than the registered number of 700,000.

“Only about 250,000 people had voted in previous elections,” Dissanayake said responding to news reports that a large number of poll cards are yet to be delivered.

Dissanayake said the poll cards were not mandatory to vote. If a voter’s name appears in the register he could vote after proving his identity.

Meanwhile, press reports said members of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) were intimidating voters in Sri Lanka’s eastern province.

Persons dressed in uniforms of the Special Task Force (STF) were also involved in the intimidation in military controlled Akkaraipattu and Pottuvil, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported Tuesday.

The STF is an elite counter-insurgency unit of the Sri Lankan police which works closely with Tamil paramilitaries and Army commandos in the ongoing shadow war against the LTTE.

The Daily Mirror quoted foreign election observers in the area as saying “systematic intimidation” was being carried out by government ministers using state vehicles and persons attired in STF-style uniforms.

“These uniformed persons, the police and private supporters were going door to door warning people to stay at home on election day,” the Daily Mirror also said, quoting an election observer.

“Akkaraipattu and Pottuvil are areas heavily in favour of the UNP candidate. So this is an attempt by government politicians in the area to try and make sure the people refrain from casting their ballot,” the observer told the paper.

“The use of state vehicles, with visible number plates is good indication that this is clearly government sponsored intimidation”, he added.

A tense atmosphere prevailed in the Ampara district as several dozen thugs allegedly hired by local UPFA strongmen hung around areas where the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has its main support in the district, the Daily Mirror also said.

“The intimidating presence of these underworld figures especially in Kalmunai and Samanthurai electorates has given rise to fears that the government is bent on creating mayhem on election day,” Mr. Rauf Hakeem, leader of the SLMC, which is backing Mr. Wickremesinghe, said.

Sri Lankan security forces have stepped up patrolling and erected new checkpoints in several parts of the island, though pre-election unrest has been minimal.

“We have intensified security, mostly in urban areas,” police spokesman Rienzie Perera told Reuters. “But the violence is very much less (than during previous elections).”

In the northern Vavuniya district, Sri Lankan security forces have stepped up the intensity of their checks on travellers, sparking anxiety amongst local residents, the Liberation Tigers said this weekend.

The European Union’s chief election observer said Saturday that a second vote should be held if serious irregularities occur.

“It would be our view that re-polling should be held if there was serious electoral malpractice.” John Cushnahan told The Associated Press on the weeked.

He criticized Sri Lankan election officials for not re-polling in the wake of accusation of irregularities in the April 2004 polls. The Election Commissioner, has rejected the demand, saying it would not have significantly affected the outcome of the results, with more than a dozen parties contesting.

Sri Lankan media reports suggest that the contest will be close - leaving tight enough margins for vote fraud to make a difference. Sri Lanka has 13.3 million eligible voters.

With barely a week to go before Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections, there is considerable confusion as to the rationale behind the Liberation Tigers’ uninterested stance on the outcome. After all, both leading candidates appear to many to have diametrically opposed stances on the peace process, one for, one against. Premier Mahinda Rajapakse has from the outset of his campaign adopted a stridently Sinhala nationalist line. His pacts with the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) and the hardline monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya set out his position on the ethnic question with startling clarity. His manifesto was also unambiguous: a rejection of notions of self-determination and homeland and a renewed commitment to the unitary state. By comparison, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe appeared very much the progressive candidate, courting the votes of Sri Lanka’s minorities and claiming the successes of the 2002-3 peace process.

With Rajapakse expanding his vote bank amongst the Sinhala south through a combination of his personal ‘man of the people’ appeal and the formidable cadre-based reach of the JVP, as well as the now running electoral machinery of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Wickremesinghe has had his work cut out. The United National Party (UNP) leader’s electoral alliances with the Estate Tamil parties and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) are important achievements secured after hectic horse trading. But it is the Tamil vote that Wickremesinghe needs now if he is to balance out the advantage accruing to Rajapakse from his Sinhala nationalist coalition. Which means Wickremesinghe needs the support of the LTTE.

But paradoxically, even as Rajapakse consolidates his position amongst the Sinhalese, the LTTE has been increasingly staying aloof from the Presidential race. Why, having quietly backed the UNP at previous Parliamentary elections, are the Tigers now uninterested when the most powerful political office in the country is up for grabs? The answer, according to many political analysts, is that LTTE would prefer Sri Lanka to be led by Sinhala-nationalists as this would undermine the state’s in the eyes of the world and thereby boost the movement’s own quest for legitimacy. Thus, the thinking goes, the LTTE is ‘holding back’ the Tamil vote from Wickremesinghe to allow Rajapakse to win. Some writers have even claimed the Tamils themselves are eager to vote for Wickremesinghe but the LTTE was preventing them from doing so.

Whilst there is some truth to the logic that a Sinhala nationalist faction heading the Sri Lankan state would provide a welcome foil against which the LTTE could argue its case in the international arena, this is not a sufficient rationale for the LTTE to throw away the possibility of a peace process progressing towards other, more tangible gains. These include, for example, the possibility of LTTE-run areas of the island getting a share of the substantial amount of international aid pledged for post-conflict and post-tsunami reconstruction as well as the possibility of an LTTE-run interim administration emerging in some form in the mid term future. Such hard gains, many analysts forget, would in themselves contribute to international legitimacy of a fashion while, more importantly, further enhancing the LTTE’s standing within the Tamil constituency.

Thus, by settling on the ‘Rajapakse good for us, Ranil bad for us’ explanation for the LTTE’s present uninterested stance, observers are excluding important dynamics of Sri Lanka’s politics and conflict from their analysis.

What is clear is that there has been a shift in the LTTE’s stance over the past few months, or at least, in the clarity of the LTTE’s stance. When Rajapakse kicked off his campaign with an unabashedly stridently Sinhala nationalist line, Sri Lanka’s minorities promptly recoiled. However, this does not mean there was an automatic stampede towards Wickremesinghe. Both the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and the SLMC negotiated hard for concessions and guarantees of post-victory allocations from the UNP before they gave their endorsements. Hobson’s choice amongst the candidates does not imply a de-facto one, and it was some time before Wickremsinghe could claim their support.

The question therefore is what, if anything, has the UNP offered the LTTE to make it worth the organisation’s while to come off the sidelines. To some extent, Rajapakse’s strident nationalist line did make Wickremesinghe the better choice, a theme initially reflected vaguely in election-related coverage in the Tamil press and the English-language Tamil media. Indeed, many Tamils reading between the lines saw the LTTE’s silence as a tacit endorsement of Wickremesinghe against Rajapakse. The thinking, with some justification, was that an open endorsement by the LTTE would undermine the UNP’s leader amongst the Sinhala voters, particularly amid Rajapakse’s campaign that Wickremesinghe would ‘sell out’ to the Tamils. But the perceived difference between the two leaders should not be overstated: there were many questions as to what exactly Wickremsinghe was going to offer the Tamils.

The wind began to pick up and shift in the wake of the publication of the UNP manifesto. What was striking,from a Tamil perspective, as much as what was in the document, was what was not in it. Whilst providing a vague and incoherent vision of ‘a solution acceptable to all’ and a commitment to past declarations that had punctuated the 2002-3 peace process, there were no concrete commitments, for example to a strong federal solution. Whilst Wickremesinghe was confident enough to tell Sri Lankan troops last week that the conflict would be resolved within three years, he could not set out what this solution might be based on.

To be fair, these are matters for the negotiating table, but there are other crucial issues ahead of that eventuality: there was no mention, for example, of an international aid sharing mechanism (Rajapakse has ruled out the moribund P-TOMs), nor of an interim administration (something clearly stated in UNP manifesto for the 2001 polls - at which the party enjoyed the LTTE’s tacit support). As the 2004 election results and subsequent surveys by respected Colombo-based think tanks underlined, Tamils overwhelmingly support the LTTE’s proposed Interim Self-Governing Authority (as do almost 50% of Muslims). This is driven by practical (reconstruction and rehabilitation) needs in the Northeast as much as by political aspirations. But Wickremesinghe avoided taking a clear position on it (while Rajapakse rejected it outright).

In short, Wickremesinghe offered the LTTE and the Tamils absolutely nothing (except possibly not ruling such matters out). In contrast, he met the demands, implicit and explicit, of the SLMC and CWC, including controversial ones, like a third Muslim delegation at the negotiating table. His readiness to unilaterally decide on such matters, which had already proved problematic in past peace talks undoubtedly irritated the LTTE. But there was a crucial and rather opportunistic aspect of Wickremesinghe’s campaign strategy that raised crucially serious doubts about his judgement: he extended his hand to outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga to form a national government in the event of his being elected.

President Kumaratunga is arguably a figure of hate for large sections of the Tamil community. Her decade-long ‘war for peace’ complete with a devastating economic embargo and its widespread destruction of Tamil towns and villages not only polarised Sri Lanka’s communities, it arguably provided considerable impetus to the LTTE’s cause amongst the Tamils. Wickremesinghe’s repeated efforts during his term as Prime Minister to mollycoddle his recalcitrant archrival visibly irritated members of his own party as well as exacerbating the LTTE’s frustrations.

But there are more important practical considerations if a future peace process is to be considered. Two rationales frequently cited by the UNP negotiators for the lack of progress during the 2002-3 peace process were either the risk of President Kumaratunga unilaterally overriding agreements that might be struck at the table, or impeding the implementation of those reached. For example, President Kumaratunga’s obstinacy as armed forces chief was repeatedly blamed for Colombo’s failure to implement the normalisation clauses in the ceasefire agreement, as well as those obligating the disarming of Army-backed paramilitaries. The UNP also insisted on keeping discussion of an interim administration for the Northeast off the negotiating agenda, citing the risk of Kumaratunga’s seriously intervening in the negotiation process.

Yet now, here was Wickremesinghe himself seeking an alliance with Kumaratunga, whilst at the same time bidding for the country’s most powerful political office. The UNP leader's invitation to the President has had two interrelated effects. Firstly, it seriously undermined the LTTE’s confidence in Wickremesinghe’s commitment to a negotiated accommodation with it (confidence that had already been frayed by the history of the 2002-3 peace process). More importantly, it immediately precluded the LTTE from supporting him without seriously undermining its own credibility amongst the Tamils.

These are critical factors that have made the LTTE shrink back from taking a role in the November 17 elections. Indeed, the Tigers’ criticism that neither candidate has anything to offer the Tamils is based not only on the factors outlined above, but a determination not to contribute, even by omission, to Wickremesinghe’s campaign. The matter was decisively settled this week when UNP stalwart and negotiator at the 2002-3 talks, Milinda Moragoda, made a devastating series of claims in an interview with the Daily Mirror.

In a tone devoid of the accommodation that might be expected if future talks are being eyed (indeed, Moragoda was more conciliatory towards the JVP than the LTTE) he claimed credit for promoting the violent rebellion by the LTTE commander, Colonel Karuna, and for entrapping the LTTE in an ‘international safety net.’ Most damagingly, Moragoda even claimed credit, on behalf of the UNP, for sinking two LTTE ships during the 2002-3 talks. The LTTE has not commented on Moragoda’s statements, but the reaction in Kilinchchi can be easily predicted.

In short, what might appear to be a straightforward choice between a Sinhala nationalist Rajapakse and a pro-peace, progressive Wickremesinghe is, from a Tamil perspective, not clear cut. This is not to say that a commonality of interests could not have been arrived at in the interests of a future peace process. But the UNP failed to provide unambiguous incentives for the LTTE and the Tamils.

The argument that the LTTE would prefer a Rajapakse-led Sinhala nationalist leadership in Colombo to undermine Sri Lanka’s standing in the international community and boost its own is not wrong. But had Wickremesinghe committed himself unambiguously to a model of substantial federalism, agreed to discuss an interim administration with the LTTE (which is where he was when Kumaratunga intervened in the peace process two years ago) and pledged to institute an aid sharing mechanism to rebuild the Northeast (for all of which international support would undoubtedly have been forthcoming), could it be said with certainty that the LTTE would not have mobilised an eager Tamil electorate behind him?

US-India air force exercise underway

The US and Indian air forces began a 12-day joint exercise in India on Monday - the latest in a series of manoeuvres that had marked ‘2002-2005 as the most active years of military-to-military exchange between the two countries in over 40 years’, according to a US embassy statement.

The exercise, called Cope India 2005, aims to foster closer military ties between Washington and New Delhi, and test Indian pilots’ ability to operate in an combat environment controlled by airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.

The US Air Force has sent an over 250-member aircrew and 15 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from a unit based at Misawa in Japan and E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) aircraft for the manoeuvres.

The Indian Air Force is represented by some 30 fighter jets, including Mirage 2000s, Su-30s and MiG-21s.

In February 2004, the last time the US Air Force participated in Cope India exercises, the Indian pilots bested US flyers in several mock-combat engagements, the military think tank, Stratfor said.

‘The Indians proved to be a tougher opponent than expected, reportedly embarrassing US flyers on several occasions,’ Stratfor said.

‘Should this happen again, the exercise will illustrate the narrowing gap between the powerful US Air Force and the increasingly sophisticated air forces of other countries.’

India’s first ‘Dalit’ President dies

Former President K.R. Narayanan, the first ‘untouchable’ from India’s pernicious caste system to occupy the office in a validation of the nation’s democratic roots, died Wednesday. He was 85.

The soft-spoken, scholarly Narayanan was admitted to an army hospital in the capital Oct. 29 with pneumonia and kidney failure. He was placed on life support two days later and died Wednesday.

Although the president’s post in India is largely ceremonial, Narayanan showed during his 1997-2002 tenure that he was no rubber-stamp executive. He broke from precedent twice to defy the government that appointed him, refusing to sack opposition-ruled state administrations.

Narayanan’s rise to the top was remarkable in a country where ‘untouchables,’ now known as ‘Dalits,’ are the lowest members of society, having faced ridicule and hostility for centuries.

The Dalits — literally ‘broken people’ — are outside the caste system, a 3,000-year-old hierarchy dividing Hindus into categories of descending social importance.

‘He proved ... that neither religion nor caste can come in the way of a person who is able to exert himself intellectually,’ former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral said.

Discrimination based on caste was outlawed in 1950, and much progress in social equality has been made since, but centuries of entrenched habits have been hard to break.

In his public statements, Narayanan never harped on the caste discrimination he faced growing up, instead emphasizing the positive.

Natwar Singh rejects UN charge

Natwar Singh on Tuesday said claims he benefited from the UN’s oil-for-food programme for Iraq which forced him to step aside as India’s foreign minister were a slur on him and the ruling Congress party.

Pointed out that the Congress party had produced ‘great leaders’ such as independence figure Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he said: ‘The Congress party and I are not afraid of any probe.’

Singh will remain in the cabinet as minister without portfolio, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over as foreign minister pending the outcome of a probe by a retired judge ordered Monday, the government said.

India’s former chief judge RS Pathak will look into the claims made in the UN report, prepared by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that Natwar Singh and the Congress party benefited from the programme.

The Volcker report named Natwar Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG. Congress, India’s oldest political entity, is also listed as a beneficiary of a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions.

The report found that Saddam’s regime manipulated the programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes, while an inept UN headquarters failed to exert administrative control.(Rediff)

Washington friction over torture

President George W. Bush declined to comment on reports of secret US prisons for terrorism suspects but defended US interrogation tactics, declaring: ‘We do not torture.’

Amid reports that senior aides have been lobbying lawmakers to exempt the CIA from limits on aggressive questioning, Bush said he was ‘working with Congress’ to ‘make it possible -- more possible -- to do our job.’

‘Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people,’ he said. ‘Anything we do to that end, in that effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture.’

The Washington Post reported last week the CIA was holding Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and ‘several democracies in eastern Europe’, after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

US officials, who insist they have been transparent in dealing with high-profile abuse cases like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, have refused to confirm or deny the existence of the secret prisons.

The Washington Post reported Monday the emergence of rifts within the Bush administration over the handling of terrorist suspects, pitting hardline Vice President Dick Cheney against officials such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

It said Rice argued that the issue was costing Washington the moral high ground and hurting US public diplomacy around the world.

UN calls for microfinance initiatives

World Bank Director Paul Wolfowitz joined other leaders in international development at United Nations Headquarters today to call for an inclusive finance services in developing countries to reduce poverty at a forum on expanding microcredit, or small-scale services for poor entrepreneurs.

‘Microfinance is a powerful tool for reducing poverty,’ Mr. Wolfowitz said as he opened the three-day meeting, a highlight of the International Year of Microcredit 2005.

He stressed the need for reliable, continuing access to financial services for the poor, rather than one-off loans.

Emphasizing that the financial infrastructure must also establish credit bureaus, delivery technologies and payment systems, he said the World Bank was advising both the public and private sectors on providing the poor with financial retail products.

Although financial services were primarily a private-sector activity, governments had a critical role in setting policies and regulating the industry to minimize market distortions.

During the International Year, the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor are working with national committees around the world to host a series of events and conferences to highlight the importance of microfinance in the fight against poverty, as they also develop strategies and resources to reach an estimated 3 billion people who lack access to formal financial services.(UN)

Pakistan has increased the official death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit the north of the country a month ago to 87,350, with nearly 100,000 injured, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said the figures were provided by the Federal Relief Commission, the government body coordinating a massive aid effort.

The October 8 earthquake devastated wide areas of Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province. More than 1,300 people were killed in Indian Kashmir.

The tremor (of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale) which lasted for 6 minutes caused widespread death and destruction to property and communication network.

An estimated three million people are homeless after the earthquake. UN officials have warned that the death toll may rise further as winter approaches. Subzero temperatures will start being felt soon in some areas, they said.

Rescue teams, hampered by landslides that block mountain roads, have yet to reach some villages in the 25,000-square-kilometer, or 10,000-square-mile, region.

As many as 40,000 people in higher areas have not even received help, Jan Egeland, the UN’s top relief envoy, said.

‘This is the race against the clock that we’ve been talking about for some time,’ Egeland said. People in Kashmir will ‘freeze to death if they don’t get assistance in weeks.’

About 334,000 tents have been delivered to the disaster area, with 322,000 more expected.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank also estimate that the quake damaged 3,837 kilometers, or 2,385 miles, of roads and destroyed 7,197 educational institutions in Pakistan.

The UN says it needs more funds for supplies and to pay for helicopters to ferry aid to survivors in areas still cut off by road. UN agencies have received $84 million out of $133 million pledged, Egeland said, though that is less than 20 percent of the $550 million the UN sought for emergency relief.

Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, has protested the world did not respond as generously in providing funds to Pakistan for earthquake relief as it did during the Southeast Asian tsunami, which left about 230,000 dead in December last year

Meanwhile, hundreds of survivors living in camps in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have acute diarrhoea, World Health Organization officials said this week.

‘In one camp we visited yesterday there were 55 cases of diarrhoea and there are so many spontaneous camps that we believe there are hundreds of others,’ WHO worker Rachel Levy told the AFP news agency in Muzaffarabad.

Doctors are investigating whether the outbreak has been caused by cholera.

The UN has said 350,000 people urgently need shelter before the onset of winter and medical aid is still to reach many others living in remote areas.

India and Pakistan have struck a deal to open five points along the heavily militarised LoC to help earthquake victims, but procedural difficulties are slowing things down.

On Wednesday, a second crossing opened on the Line of Control (LoC) that divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But Kashmiri residents are still unable to cross the LoC to help relatives and loved ones on the other side.

When it comes to making love, Indians are not only the safest but are also the most committed to their partners and do not find their sex life monotonous, according to Durex Global sex survey.

The survey conducted by the world’s leading condom brands said Indians have had least unprotected sex without knowing their partners sexual history with 21 per cent, as compared to the global average of 47 per cent (Norwegians 73 per cent and Greeks 70 per cent are most likely to have unsafe sex without knowing their partners sexual history).

As far as the number of sexual partners are concerned, Indians had the fewest with an average of three as compared to nine globally. Turks with an average of 14.5 partners have had more sexual partners than any other nationality in the world.

That Indians are committed to their partners is vindicated by the fact that only 13 per cent of them have had one-night stands, which is the least compared to 44 per cent worldwide, it said.

The survey, which interviewed over 3,17,000 people from41 countries, including India, said apart from being the safest love-makers very few Indians find their sexual relationship with their partner monotonous.

Only three per cent of Indians experienced monotony in sex compared to seven per cent globally. While 46 per cent of Indians said they were happy with their sex lives compared to 44 per cent globally.

Indians were rated slow when it came to losing their virginity at an average age of 19.8 years as compared to 17.3 years, the average age when people had sex for the first time worldwide, the survey said.

People from Iceland have sex younger than any other country (15.6) followed by the Germans (15.9) and Swedes (16.1), it said.

Believing in safe sex, however, did not deter Indians in seeking sexual contentment. Pornography (37 per cent) and pleasure enhancing condoms (28 per cent) are the top two sexual enhancers preferred by Indians. Globally, 23 per cent voted in favour of pleasure enhancing condoms.

Indians, like many other nationalities around the world, believe that HIV/AIDS was the most important area that needed greater public awareness. While 87 per cent of Indians voted it as a top priority area, which needed greater awareness in the society, 72 per cent of people globally felt so.

Therefore, a majority of Indians (47 per cent) felt that government should be investing in sex education in schools while 34 per cent around the world believed so, the survey said.

Violence flared again Wednesday in riot-hit parts of France but the threat of emergency curfews appeared to have taken the edge off the urban unrest that has gripped the country for almost two weeks.

The French government’s emergency measure was the toughest response to date to rioting in high-immigration suburbs which has left more than 6,000 cars burned, dozens of policemen injured and one civilian dead.

The ritual of car-burnings that has plagued poor city suburbs picked up again after nightfall, but police said there were far fewer incidents pitting rioters against the security forces and no reports of shots fired.

The government Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit parts of the country under a decree, applicable from Wednesday, which will allow regional authorities to declare curfews to combat the violence.

The first to act under the new powers, the town of Amiens north of Paris, declared an overnight curfew for unaccompanied under 16-year-olds and a ban on petrol sales to minors, even before the decree comes into force.

Mayors have already declared separate, local curfews, in Orleans and Savigny-sur-Orge, both south of Paris, and in Raincy northeast of the capital.

Across the country, 558 vehicles had been torched at 4:00 am (0300 GMT), compared with 814 at the same time on Tuesday, and 204 people arrested, against 143 the previous night, according to national police figures.

Despite the car-burnings, police said the overall situation was calmer than on recent nights, when dozens of police officers were injured, two by gunshot.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who was visiting police in southwestern Toulouse, a flashpoint of unrest in recent days, said there had been a ‘fairly significant fall’ in the violence.

The situation was relatively calm in the northeast Paris suburbs where the violence began, police said, with isolated cases of arson and a dozen arrests.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Belgium, a dozen cars were set alight, although police downplayed concerns about serious violence spreading over the border.

France invoked a 1955 law, enacted at the start of troubles that triggered the war of independence in French-controlled Algeria, which permits the declaration of curfews, house searches and bans on public meetings.

Seventy-three percent of French people support the government’s curfew decision, according to a poll to appear in Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui.

But some have charged that the measure recalls one of the worst moments in the country’s modern history and has painful associations for Algerians, the original law’s main targets.

Violence continued in Sri Lanka’s Northeast with kidnappings being reported amid gun and grenade attacks on Sri Lankan security forces, the Liberation Tigers and civilians, but there were fewer incidents than in the previous week.

A Muslim owner of a business was shot and wounded in Monday night at his residence in Eravur, 15 km north of Batticaloa town, by gunmen believed to be belonging to a Muslim armed group.

Last Friday night another Muslim businessman shot and wounded at Mavadichenai in Valaichenai, 32 km north of Batticaloa, by gunmen also believed to be Muslims, Valaichenai police said.

Police allege that a Muslim armed group in the east is engaged in extortion among Muslim business owners in Batticaloa.

Armed men believed to be cadres of the paramilitary Karuna Group kidnapped three youths at gunpoint Saturday night in Kaluwankerny in Eravur. Parents of the kidnapped youths told Eravur police the kidnappers had come in a white van.

At least five youths have been reported disappeared last week in the Batticaloa district.

A worker attached to Sammanthurai bus depot of the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at his home in Akkaraipattu, in Amparai district, 64 km south of Batticaloa, Sunday night.

The motive behind the killing was not clear, Akkaraipattu Police said.

Unidentified assailants Thursday morning opened fire at a tri-shaw transporting a cadre of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the policemen providing escort to his vehicle.

Three policemen, the EPDP cadre and the tri-shaw driver were wounded and rushed to Batticaloa Hospital. The incident took place near a police post located north of Batticaloa town on Trincomalee Road.

The policemen returned fire at the assailants, however they managed to flee from the site, police said, adding that the gunmen had used T-56 assault rifle.

However, violence in Jaffna tailed off this week, in comparison to the previous week which saw several grenade attacks on Sri Lankan military checkpoints and vehicles.

Two men who entered the Liberation Tigers controlled area near the Muhamalai crossing point on Friday and attempted to lob grenades at the LTTE sentry post were shot while they tried to escape.

One of the attackers was later rushed to Chavakacheri hospital by the Sri Lanka Army. The fate of the other is not known.

Also Friday, a grenade was thrown at the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry point located near the gas station close to Jaffna Windsor theatre. No one was injured but the structure was badly damaged.

Following the incident additional SLA troops were brought to the town. Security forces established check points at several locations and started checking the public.

Eight soldiers attached to the SLA’s 512 brigade, presently occupying the landmark Gnanams and Subash hotels in Jaffna, were electrocuted when the truck they were travelling in entangled with the live electric perimeter fence.

All have been admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, two o having suffered life threatening injuries.

Civil groups and fishermen’s unions have been complaining to the SLA and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to abandon the practice of electrifying fences, especially following the recent death of a Gurunagar fisherman who was electrocuted by a SLN fence.

In Trincomalee, unidentified men shot dead a Tamil youth on a scooter Saturday night in front of a leading jewellery shop along Dockyard Road in the eastern port town.

The incident took place a few meters from the main entrance to the eastern headquarters of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), police said.

Security forces and police immediately launched a cordon and search operation blocking all roads leading the scene.

The murdered youth is said to be an informant of the Sri Lanka security forces. He was earlier in the LTTE and later left the movement.

Civilians entering the LTTE-controlled Muttur east territory in the Trincomalee district are now subjected to severe checking and interrogation by Sri Lanka troops. Several people were refused entry.

A group of Sri Lankan officials of the Education International (EI), all Sinhalese, were detained Wednesday for two houres at the Kaddaiparichchan SLA checkpoint because they were Sinhalese.

The EI officials told the soldiers that they were going to two Tamil villages Cheenanveli and Uppooral in the Muttur east to lay foundation stones for new buildings of two schools, which were damaged by recent tsunami.

The defense ministry later authorised the SLA at Kaddaiparichchan camp to allow them through.

Also on Thursday, representatives of fisheries co-operative societies in the Trincomalee district on their way to meeting being held in Chenaiyoor Central College were blocked by the troops at Kaddaiparichchan.

After the intervention of the international ceasefire monitors, the troops allowed the officials to proceed to Muttur east.

On the other side of the island, two unidentified gunmen entered a jewellery shop located on Puttalam Mannar Road in Puttalam town and shot at the owner, wounding him. The gunmen fled on a motorbike. Motive behind the shooting incident is not clear, police said.

Compiled from TamilNet reports

A senior Sri Lankan military intelligence officer shot dead last month might have been murdered by one of his own operatives being groomed to assassinate a senior Tamil Tiger commander, the Sunday Times reported this week.

Lt. Col. Tuan Rizli Meedin was shot dead on October 29 by a gunmen seated in the passenger seat of his car, investigators found.

The Sunday Times’ Defence Correspondent, Iqbal Athas, reported this week that Lt. Col. Meedin had met the evening of his death with a friend and a military intelligence operative in the Trincomalee district before leaving with them.

The contact, Andrahennedige Chaminda Roshan, is a Sinhala businessman in Trincomalee. Among other things, he sold fish including those caught in Tiger guerrilla held areas.

Chamley Dissanayake, the friend, claims Chaminda shot Lt. Col. Meedin from the rear seat of the car.

“Chaminda had beaten a hasty retreat to Trincomalee. From there, he had slipped into Tiger guerrilla dominated Sampur area. Early this week, rumours had been floated that Chaminda had been shot dead. But authorities have heard through reliable channels that he had found safe haven,” Athas wrote.

Athas says investigators have found Chaminda was a ‘close associate’ of Colonel Sornam, LTTE Military Wing leader for the Trincomalee district.

Lt. Col. Meedin is said to have known Chaminda since 1995.

Lt. Col. Meedin was warned on October 21 of a Tiger guerrilla threat to murder him, Athas wrote. “Though such a warning was not accompanied by specific details of the plot, he was told that his circle of contacts had been infiltrated.”

“Some persons were identified. But this senior intelligence officer found it difficult to believe the people whom he associated with would turn traitor to him. He had been convinced they were helping him.”

Lt. Col. Meedin had said of Chaminda to a close friend and colleague who was among those who gave him the warning: “Don’t worry, I know what I am doing. I am careful. I am trying to get at Sornam. I am running him. This guy has promised he would kill him.”

As Athas points out, the questions raised by the saga assume greater importance in the light of another fact: officially, state intelligence agencies have called a halt to all covert operations against the LTTE since the ceasefire of February 2002.

Fears of election rigging taking place in Sri Lanka’s Northeast expressed by European monitors last week gained weight this week as continuing apathy amongst Tamil voters suggested turnouts might be low.

Leading Sri Lankan papers said names of deceased voters and those who had immigrated abroad were still on the electoral register.

The Sunday Leader reported the Liberation Tigers had protested to election monitors over the failure to update the register.

Jaffna’s Government Agent K. Ganesh said he was certain the names of the dead had been deleted, but admits that the district’s estimated population was only 600,000 while some 701,000 people have registered as electors.

Election monitors are concerned that in the close race between the two leading contenders, election fraud by Arm-backed paramilitaries may play a crucial role, particularly in conflict-wracked Batticaloa district.

‘What has happened in previous elections is that there was serious malpractice in a number of areas, but it wasn’t enough to affect the overall result. [But] in a very close run presidential contest, it could make a very significant difference,’ Chief EU election monitor John Cushnahan told Reuters.

‘I’m worried what will happen in the north and east. There’s been a lot of speculation over what Karuna will do,’ Cushnahan said referring to the former Tiger commander who defected to the Army after his failed rebellion against the LTTE.

In Jaffna, the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which has a history of electoral fraud, is campaigning for Premier Mahinda Rajapakse, ironically the Sinhala nationalists’ candidate of choice.

But the Sunday Times newspaper suggested that LTTE might be intending to rig the polls, claiming in Jaffna residents have been requested by the Tigers to register those deceased or living abroad.

The LTTE has said that they are uninterested in the election since neither Rajapakse nor his main rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe, are going to address Tamil interests.

On the day of the election, PAFFREL intends to deploy 20,000 election monitors island-wide with 1500 mobile units.

In addition to this, the European Union plans to send 72 experts to join observers from Asia, the Commonwealth, and around 33,000 local officials in monitoring the election in the violence-prone island.

Discussions are ongoing to securely provide 81 cluster polling booths in government-held territory for the 100,000 voters in LTTE-held areas.

Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake says he will not hesitate to cancel voting in the North and East if any irregularities are reported, and hold a re-run in these regions two days later.

A week before Sri Lanka’s Presidential election, both leading contenders are aggressively courting the Sinhala nationalist vote, with trips to the northern conflict zones to meet with troops and adopting patriotic slogans.

In a surprise move, Ranil Wickremesinghe, hitherto seen as the de facto choice for Sri Lanka’s minorities given the stridently Sinhala nationalist platform adopted by his rival, Mahinda Rajapakse, has also shifted sharply to the right.

Last week Wickremesinghe, the former Premier who signed a ceasefire and held talks with the Liberation Tigers, flew to the former war zones in the northern Jaffna to meet with Sinhala soldiers on Thursday.

Ranil Wickremesinghe visiting the Palaly base complex last week. Photo Sunday Leader

Rajapakse, the present Premier, followed with a tour of his own on the following day, Friday. Both leaders stayed within the confines of the military’s High Security Zones (HSZs) and did not travel into the town or peninsula to meet the Tamil residents.

Both adopted patriotic slogans as they spoke to some of the forty thousand troops garrisoned in the northern peninsula.

Rajapakse reiterated his commitment to a united Sri Lanka, declaring he would sacrifice everything to end the war, “except my motherland.”

“No one can wage a war and divide this country,” Rajapakse said.

Wickremesinghe vowed to strengthen the armed forces and to seek international assistance in this regard, adding that his peace process with the LTTE would in no way betray the nation.

Whilst Rajapakse has, from the outset, taken a stridently Sinhala nationalist line, signing electoral pacts with the radical Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) and the hardline monks’ party, the JHU.

Analysts had seen Wickremesinghe, however, as courting Sri Lanka’s minority voters – from the Tamil, Estate Tamil and Muslim communities – through a pro-peace campaign.

However in the past few days, his United National Party (UNP), has also taken strong Sinhala nationalist positions and Wickremesinghe has reportedly been attending campaign meetings alongside the Lion flag.

In a blatant sop to Sinhala nationalism, UNP stalwart Milinda Moragoda, one of Wickremesinghe’s close confidantes, this week spelled out how his party had sought to weaken and undermine the LTTE whilst being engaged in peace talks with the movement in 2002 and 2003.

In an interview with the English language Daily Mirror newspaper, Moragoda claimed credit on behalf of the UNP for engineering a split within the LTTE through the peace process whilst at the same time keeping the movement locked in via an international security net and also claimed credit for the sinking of LTTE vessels during the peace talks.

“There was so much [naval] activity and with the help of the international intelligence network that we had set up, our navy managed to intercept several LTTE arm ships,” he said. “But we hardly heard about such interceptions after the UPFA came into power.”

The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which toppled the UNP-led one in April 2004, is headed by Premier Rajapakse.

Rejecting accusations by the UNP’s critics that the party had strengthened the LTTE through the peace process Moragoda instead said the party had fostered fissures within the LTTE, referring in particular to the rebellion against the organisation’s leadership by its former eastern commander, Karuna.

Moragoda’s comments have stirred a hornet’s nest amongst the Tamil communities, with newspapers lambasting the UNP. One of the Estate Tamil parties which had among the first to swung behind Wickremesinghe has said it is reconsidering its position.

Analysts say that with barely a week left before campaigning closes, the UNP runs the risk of not making sufficient inroads into Rajapakse’s Sinhala nationalist vote bank whilst alienating the Tamil vote.

Some point out that the UNP’s party machinery may not be a match for the highly discipline and effective cadre based organisation that the JVP is deploying in the Sinhala rural areas.

“[Wickemesinghe’s] party machinery is still stuck, as the Colombo-centric operatives manning his campaign refuse to see what’s happening (or not happening) in the hinterland,” the Sunday Times’ political column said.

“He would have had no problem in winning if he was to face Rajapakse and the SLFP machinery. But with the JVP youth out in their numbers, in rain and sunshine, at day and in the night, the UNP campaign seems to have placed over-reliance on their US$ 5 million advertising campaign.”

An analyst with the Hindustan Times, P.K. Balachandran, points out that Rajapakse has the advantage of novelty, which Wickremesinghe’s recent lurch to the right cannot erase.

“The Sinhala-Buddhist voters believe that Rajapaksa has not had a fair chance to prove himself though he is the Prime Minister and had been a minister for long. They think that Wickremesinghe had been given a chance between 2002 and mid 2004, when he was Prime Minister, but he had failed miserably to deliver.”

(Comment) What is the LTTE up to? [Nov 9, 2005]
(Comment) Today's UNP is no exception, [Nov 9, 2005]
(Feature) Hopefuls’ flying visits to Jaffna enclaves. [Nov 9, 2005]

Whilst Presidential election race heats up in Sri Lanka’s south, in the island’s Tamil areas, there is a continuing distinct lack of interest, with many voters telling journalists they are awaiting a signal from the Liberation Tigers as to how vote, if at all.

The LTTE itself has said it is neutral in the race, described as too close to call, between leading contenders Premier Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Many analysts have suggested Mr. Rajapakse’s pacts with Sinhala ultra-nationalist parties makes Mr. Wickremesinghe the de-facto choice for the Tamils.

But the Tigers argue that there is little to choose between the two Sinhala heavyweights, and the sentiment is reflected in the Tamil press and, as journalists in Jaffna and the Vanni found this week, amongst voters too.

‘We will act according to what the LTTE tells us. If they tell us to vote, we will vote. If they tell us not to, we will not,’ Kilinochchi storekeeper Suppiaah Ravi told Reuters.

‘If Mr. Rajapakse wins, we will move towards war. But the LTTE has not yet advised us and if they do we will follow. The LTTE is the people, and we the people are the LTTE,’ one trader in Kilinnochchi, Nadesan Thanigasalam, told Reuters.

Unlike in the last Parliamentary election, when 650,000 Tamils voted to elect 22 MPs from the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, the Tigers are not making a concerted effort to mobilize Tamil votes for either candidate.

LTTE political head S.P. Tamilchelvan told Reuters the LTTE remains disinterested because both candidates are manipulating the issues of peace and conflict to garner Tamil votes.

‘After the election, all promises are forgotten. We are totally unconcerned about the outcome of this election. We are a responsible political organization and have decided that people are at liberty to decide whether to vote and how to vote,’ Mr. Tamilchelvan said.

Sri Lankan newspapers quoted some Tamils saying they did not wish to vote against the LTTE’s wishes.

‘In addition to the doubts of the benefits of voting, one of our main problems is whether the LTTE wants us to vote or not. Everybody knows the influence they have even over the government-controlled areas and nobody would want to take a risk by going against its wishes. But I am sure there are people who want to vote. We will have to wait for the LTTE’s orders,’ school teacher Kanageshwari Thangamma told the Sunday Times.

However, Thangamma admitted said there was minimal enthusiasm among Tamils since they are disillusioned that voting can resolve their problems.

Practical difficulties further dissuading many voters. Many Tamils in LTTE-held Kilinochchi described the time-consuming efforts needed to travel the 33 kilometres to Muhamalai to cast their vote. Voters have to leave early in the morning, undergo security checks and return home late after missing a day of work.

LTTE official K.V. Balakumaran stated on the Tiger’s Voice, their radio station, that Tamils are neglected by the presidential candidates.

‘This election conveys a message to the world. That is the Tamil people have nothing to do with the Sri Lanka presidential election. Our position is that both the candidates have not shown the least consideration toward the Tamil people’s problems,’ he said.

The Tamil Government Clerical Services Association also asked all government workers in Jaffna to boycott the upcoming election to send an unequivocal message to the international community.

‘Both presidential candidates are focused on becoming the supreme commander of the Sri Lanka Security Forces to continue suppression of the Tamil people. Neither is interested in finding an amicable solution to the burning Tamil National question,’ the group stated.

This comes a few weeks after the Jaffna Student Organization of Higher Education Institutions called upon Tamils to boycott the elections to show the world that ‘the land of the Tamils will no more trust Sinhala leaders.’

If the Tamils adopt the LTTE’s disinterested stance, election analysts believe Rajapakse, campaigning on a strident Sinhala nationalist platform, will win.

Last week posters bearing the LTTE emblem and signed by the movement’s Political office in Jaffna appeared in the town exhorting the people to turn out and vote. The LTTE swiftly denied the posters were theirs.

Meanwhile pamphlets have been distributed in Jaffna by a hitherto unknown group calling itself People’s Force, or ‘Makkal Padai,’ asking people to abstain from voting.

These leaflets have been distributed throughout the region and have been posted in government offices and private buildings, according to Sri Lankan papers, which also said the Makkal Padai is an LTTE front.

Speakers at the annual meeting of the US Tamil Sangam last weekend called on expatriates to play a greater role in placing the Tamil struggle in the international agenda.

Congressman Danny Davis (D-Ill.), the first United States congressperson to visit areas held by the Liberation Tigers, discussed the parallels between the Blacks’ struggle for freedom in America and the struggle for Tamil freedom.

‘There is no greater feeling than the human need to be treated fairly and equally – this burns deep within the hearts of every creature. I can see this burns in your hearts, minds and souls,’ Congressman Davis said.

‘Frederick Douglas, the great freed slave, said struggle and strive are the prerequisites to progress. What a man will submit to is exactly what a man will get. The limits of tyrants are determined by the will of those they would seek to oppress, so we must continue to fight.’

‘I saw areas totally devastated, I visited the orphanages and saw the wonderful children, and thought, ‘how can I be helpful, how can I do anything but assist in any small way I can,’ their struggle is parallel to that struggle I have experienced as an individual and as a group,’ Congressman Davis said.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam spoke about the current political climate in Sri Lanka that is highly hostile to the peace process.

‘[Premier Mahinda] Rajapakse’s pacts with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) make creating a consensus within the country very difficult. We will be lucky if the agreements from the peace process are actually enforced,’ Mr. Ponnambalam said.

Professor John Neelsen from the World Centre for Peace, Liberty and Human Rights from France offered an international perspective on the Tamil issue.

He reiterating the need for the Tamil diaspora to persuade their host governments to support their struggle.

‘Territorial autonomy must be supported by the international community,’ he argued. ‘[This] needs to be done on two fronts. By action in Sri Lanka, but also with a political front on the international level.’

‘It is the major responsibility of expatriates to act as citizens of their new countries to represent the voice of Tamils. There is no guarantee of success, but Tamils are fighting for a just cause,’ Prof. Neelsen said.

‘In the battlefield of the international community, Tamils and the LTTE have failed to present their point or even neutralize the voice of Sri Lanka. The LTTE is still considered a clandestine guerilla organization that holds territory, as the European Union ban and the United States’ designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization shows,’ he said.

‘The government of Sri Lanka is the official representative and the only intermediary and partner in an international system based on states. This does nothing regarding the culture of impunity, or the human rights violations, the question of maintaining paramilitaries, or the necessary transfer of aid to the Northeast to address disparate standards of development,’ he said.

After Congressman Davis people must work towards peace, placing ‘peace within the hearts of men as a world order,’ Prof. Neelsen added that Tamils must also appeal to the international community’s self-interest.

‘People operate not by goodwill, but by interests. You must figure out who is really the power that will make a difference, such as the United States. If the U.S. withdrew the designation of the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, this would be simple recognition that no possibility of a peaceful settlement is possible when one party is proscribed as a terrorist group.’

‘You must help to redefine the Tamil point of view where we currently only see the Sri Lankan government’s view,’ Prof. Neelsen stated. ‘You must present the situation as the fight of Tamils, and show that establishing an independent state is in the interest of fighting terrorism’

Panel at the Sangam AGM: (l-r) TNA MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Professor John Neelsen, Dr. Francis Muthu and US Congressman Danny Davis.

Hundreds of Tamil youth in Britain attended a cultural show with a twist in West London last Saturday. The Tamil Youth Organisation’s (TYO) branch in Britain, in cooperation with several University Tamil societies, successfully held their second 2005 event – titled ‘Western Koothu’ - at the Greenford Assembly Hall.

TYO said there were two objectives behind the glitzy event. The first was to raise funds for the Knowledge Centre or academy that is being built in Visuvamadu, Vanni. This centre is to allow young Diaspora Tamils visiting Vanni on teaching holidays to lodge and work from a permanently available base. The current centre is a pilot scheme and is being funded by TYO branches in Canada, USA, Australia, Germany, France and many other European countries.

The second reason for holding the ‘Western Koothu’ show was to attract more Tamil youth living in the UK to TYO and its projects.

‘TYO aims to foster an appreciation and understanding of the linguistic and cultural richness of Tamil among the second and third generation Tamils living outside the tradition Tamil homeland,’ a TYO official said.

‘It also wishes to encourage youth in the Diaspora to help those underprivileged youth living in the Tamil homeland,’ she said.

The Western Koothu show included performances by the Tamil societies of University College London (UCL), Imperial College, Leeds University, Surrey University and Kings College’s Sri Lankan society. The societies also make up the United Kingdom Tamil Students Union (UKTSU) which is affiliated to the TYO.

The audience were enthralled by the performance by MC Subzero and Krishan. The ‘blind date’ spoof was a hilarious piece of theatre, albeit with a subtle blend of social messages.

There was an ‘east meets west’ catwalk, dances and karaoke to Tamil popular and cinema songs.

A documentary on TYO’s ongoing projects, produced, naturally, by TYO’s own media unit, was played shortly before the interval. The documentary introduced TYO’s aims and structure and allowed each subsection to pitch to Tamil youth at the event to join them.

The event organisers say they were delighted with the success of Saturday’s events. TYO-UK and its affiliate University organisations say they raised a sizeable sum of money for the teaching centre and convinced several Diaspora to join up.