Striking a sharp contrast to Colombo's portrayal of Eelam struggle as a terrorist issue, Frances Stewart, the director of the Oxford based Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), looks at the crisis as a case of inequalities in political power between the Tamils and Sinhalese.

In an interview that appeared in Human Rights Tribune, on Thursday, she said: "Horizontal inequalities have political, economic, social and cultural dimensions… Inequalities in political power, which are very important, where one group may have total dominance of the political system, and another group does not have any access, which is the situation more or less in Sri Lanka."

Ms. Stewart said it while answering to a question posed by IPS correspondent Michael Deibert, who interviewed her in relation to a publication of CRISE, 'Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multi-Ethnic Societies', which is going to be released shortly.

CRISE, directed by Ms. Stewart is a Development Research Centre within Oxford University, supported by the British Government Department for International Development (DFID).

Answering another question on steps that should be taken by governments and international institutions to address these inequalities and prevent conflict in the future, she said:

"This issue has been surpassingly neglected by the international community. If you look at the normal policies that we advocate, such as democracy, saying that countries have to be democratic and they have to have many parties, we don’t think about the implications between groups."

"Democracy can lead to quite a dangerous situation in a multi-ethnic society unless you accompany it with policies to protect groups. If you have one group that is in a majority, they can really suppress the freedoms of a minority group," she said.

"On the political side, what it requires is recognition of the importance of distributing power across groups and not having exclusive power."

A CRISE working paper by Ms. Stewart, titled "Horizontal Inequalities: A Neglected Dimension of Development," available at the Centre's website, reveals that the research was based on nine case studies, ranging from Africa and Asia to Latin America.

The paper says that Horizontal Inequality has provoked a spectrum of political reaction, including severe and long-lasting violent conflict (Uganda, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Northern Ireland), less severe rebellion (Chiapas), coups (Fiji), periodic riots and criminality (the US), occasional racial riots (Malaysia) and a high level of criminality (Brazil).

"Where ethnic identities coincide with economic/social ones, social instability of one sort of another is likely –ethnicity does become a mobilising agent, and as this happens the ethnic divisions are enhanced. Sri Lanka is a powerful example; Chiapas another," is one of the conclusions found in the working paper.

However, the main problem in the development analysis of the CRISE research is its basis that Tamils were better placed in development than the Sinhalese under the British rule, said a Sri Lankan development analyst in Colombo when contacted by TamilNet.

The CRISE paper places Sri Lanka along with Malaysia, South Africa, and Uganda and says these are situations where the politically powerful represent the relatively deprived.

The paper argues that the government policies to bridge the gap in Sri Lanka provoked serious violence because the policies were culturally (language policy) and economically invasive and because of the geographic concentration of Tamils in the Northeast, facilitating a demand for independence unlike the case of the Indians in Fiji.

The paper also compares and contrasts Sri Lanka and Malaysia:

"Both apparently started in a similar situation, with the political majority at an economic disadvantage, but while attempts to correct this situation in Malaysia were successful, they actually provoked war in Sri Lanka."

The paper continues with statistics in education and government employment in Sri Lanka and argues that government policies to bring in horizontal equality by reverting the better position held by Tamils earlier, were successful, but provoked crisis.

But, according to the Colombo analyst, the better position held earlier by Tamils in education and government service, doesn't mean that they were better developed. This is again falling a prey to the sophisticated propaganda of the Sri Lankan state to justify its genocidal programme. Not only the international study groups, but even some Colombo-centric Tamil intellectuals have taken the bait, he said.

"Education and government service never meant an economy for Tamils in their own land and never helped the accumulation of capital in the Tamil areas."

"Economic autonomy last prevailed in the Tamil areas only under the Dutch. At that time, there were Eelam Tamils who were able to compete with officials of the Dutch East India Company in getting the pearl-diving contracts."

The British period marked a decline and eventual disappearance of the foreign trade of Tamils. "The plantation based economy of the British helped only the accumulation of capital in Colombo and made Tamils to depend on it," he observed.

The ports and communication infrastructure of the Tamil regions, which were vital for development, were neglected under the British.

"For instance, while railway was introduced to southern Sri Lanka in 1864, it came to Jaffna only in 1905. The coastal highways linking the Tamil areas were never developed. Even the Jaffna - Colombo coastal route was abandoned in British times."

Observing further, he said that there was no urbanisation in Tamil areas under the British.

The last population influx to Tamil areas was only under the Dutch, if the Sinhala colonisation schemes are not counted. "The fact that people were moving out from Tamil areas and urban centres since British times only indicate that there was no development."

Talking on education as an index of development, he said that education in Tamil areas were actually developed by the American Mission, whom the British wanted to downplay at that time by sending them off to a region, which was not in their priority.

The kind of education that was developed first by the missionaries and later by the native schools, helped a middle-class formation, produced professionals and was the only option for livelihood, but this was never translated into a sound basis for the development of the Eelam Tamil region, he opined.

"It is a myth that the Tamils were the favourites of the rulers and received advantages under the British. Anyone, who doubts it should read the British government assessment of Ceylon communities in the Donoughmore report of 1928. The coastal Sinhalese were assessed as the most progressive community and not surprisingly independent Ceylon was transferred to them in 1948."

"Had the Tamils been 'the developed' and the 'favourites,' they would have seen Eelam in British time itself," said the Colombo based analyst, who doesn't wish to be named due to the naive ban on TamilNet and the prevailing security situation for journalists and academics in Sri Lanka.

SETTING aside domestic Tamil sensitivities, the Indian government appears to have involved itself in a full-fledged proxy war in Sri Lanka.

While claiming to have adopted a hands-off policy with regard to its neighbour’s continuing ethnic conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the forces of the Sinhalese government, India is extending the latter its covert support.

This was revealed by Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, last week during an interaction with members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association in Colombo.

“Eight hundred of our officers are trained (in India) every year; free of cost,” Fonseka is reported to have said. “India gives them an allowance for the duration of their courses there. The support from India is huge.”

Fonseka’s remarks came on the heels of a high-level Indian delegation’s visit to Colombo at a time when the government troops and the LTTE are locked in a fierce battle in northern Sri Lanka.

The Indian officials’ trip was kept a close secret. According to media reports, even the Lankan foreign ministry came to know about the visit of India’s national security adviser, MK Narayanan, defence secretary Vijay Singh, and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon only hours after they landed in Colombo on an Indian Air Force plane.

Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt last year, has vowed to achieve a military victory against the LTTE. His confidence stems from his military success against the Tigers in the Eastern provinces last year and covert Indian support to his war efforts.

Fonseka, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse together form the powerful Colombo triumvirate that advocates a military solution to the ethnic strife that has claimed over 70,000 lives in the last three decades. In March, Fonseka made a six-day state visit to India, during which he met with top defence officials.

Military relations between India and Sri Lanka have developed over recent years even though the two countries have not entered any formal cooperation agreement. While many in Delhi support such an agreement, it has not seen the light of day due to stiff opposition from political parties in Tamil Nadu.

At present, however, India appears to have cast aside all neutrality in the Tamil-Sinhala conflict, and adopted a policy best encapsulated by an unnamed military officer to a news agency on the eve of Fonseka’s Delhi visit: “India wants to ensure that the Sri Lankan army maintains its upper hand over the LTTE.”

India’s training of Sri Lankan army personnel has never been officially confirmed by either country, until Fonseka’s boast last week. More details of the military cooperation are, however, emerging.

According to a July 1 report in The Times of India, in 2008-2009 alone, over 500 Lankan army personnel are to be trained in Indian institutions like the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram and the School of Artillery at Devlali in Maharashtra.

According to the report, about 100 gentlemen cadets will receive training at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, 39 officers at the College of Military Engineering at Pune, 15 in the School of Artillery at Devlali, 29 in the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre at Ahmednagar, 25 in the College of Materials Management at Jabalpur, 30 in the Electronics and Mechanical Engineering School at Vadodara, and 14 at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering at Mhow.

Support does not stop at training alone. India has been supplying ‘defensive’ military equipment to Sri Lanka, including the indigenouslymanufactured Indra radars.

Officially, India claims it does not supply offensive weapons to Sri Lanka, but there are strong possibilities of a secret arrangement being in place already.

However, in June last year, when MK Narayanan publicly cautioned Sri Lanka against purchasing arms from China and Pakistan, he also said it could approach India for any help it required. Narayanan’s statement could have meant only one thing, that India was ready to meet Sri Lanka’s arms demands.

India’s relations with Sri Lanka is seen by many from the perspective of the Chinese geopolitical strategy in the region. Sri Lanka has moved closer to China in recent years, and Rajapakse, who came to power in 2005, has been particularly adept at playing the China card against India.

Sri Lanka figures prominently in Chinese naval strategy, being part of China’s “string of pearls” (or strategic bases) starting from the South China Sea and extending through the Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean and on to the Arabian and Persian Gulfs.

Security experts like B. Raman, a former additional secretary of the Government of India, have been expressing concern about the Chinese threat. In a recent column, Raman noted: “The semi-permanent presence, which the Chinese are getting in Sri Lanka, will bring them within monitoring distance of India’s fast-breeder reactor complex at Kalpakkam near Chennai, the Russian aided Koodankulam nuclear power reactor complex in southern Tamil Nadu and India’s space establishments in Kerala.”

While India’s need to counter this threat is beyond doubt, sections of those sympathetic to the Lankan Tamil cause see striking similarities in the present developments to the situation in the 1980s, in the run-up to the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in 1987.

In that period, the then Sri Lankan president, JR Jayawardene, got India embroiled into fighting the LTTE. The consequences of that flawed intervention, and the immense suffering it caused Tamils at the hands of the Indian army, are yet to be erased from the bruised memories of Tamils all over the world.

Discontent over the Centre’s policies in Sri Lanka continues to simmer in Tamil Nadu, with various parties urging the Indian government to stop military aid to the country.

The LTTE has also made appeals. Following Fonseka’s visit to Delhi in March, the outfit issued a statement against India’s growing military aid to Sri Lanka, saying: “While proclaiming that a solution to the Tamil problem must be found through peaceful means, India is giving encouragement to the military approach of the Sinhala State. This can only lead to the intensification of the genocide against the Tamils.”

A pro-LTTE Sri Lankan Tamil MP said recently, “We are optimistic even during this darkest hour. The Sri Lankan government will ditch India in favour of the Chinese in due course. Then India will have to change its policy and support the Tamils as Indira Gandhi did during her time.”

Whatever may be the future twists and turns in South Asia’s highly unpredictable diplomatic world, as of now India cannot disown responsibility for its part in the Eelam tragedy.

Popular South Indian magazine ‘Kumudam’ in its editorial urged the Central government in India to act cautiously in decisions relating to Sri Lanka and not to unwittingly assist the enemy.

The planned attendance of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the SAARC summit and the deployment of Indian military personnel for his security has become a controversial issue.

The agreement of Sri Lankan government to the presence of 3000 Indian soldiers in Colombo has further raised suspicions.

We have forgotten neither the attack on late premier Rajeev Gandhi by a Sri Lankan soldier nor the atrocities committed due to the counter productive decision to send Indian Peace Keeping Forces to Sri Lanka.

Therefore we cannot be complacent in matters of security for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

However, there has been no response from the government to questions posed by the opposition as to whether the Indian troopers sent to provide security to the premier will stay back to support the racist Sri Lankan state.

At a time when the Sri Lanka’s war against Tamils escalates, who will benefit from the Indian weapons? Who will bear the brunt of these weapons?

As Sri Lanka turns to other countries including China and Pakistan for assistance, any decision taken by India will have international significance.

The painful lessons India learnt in the past by intervening in the Sri Lankan conflict should not be forgotten.

At this crucial point in time, India should act carefully to ensure no harm befalls the Tamils in Sri Lanka whilst protecting her sovereignty.

Our assistance should not result in strengthening the enemy.

(Translated)

In the most visible sign yet of a new openness toward the mainland under new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, the two sides -- which split in 1949 after a civil war -- welcomed passenger flights directly from each other's territory.

"This is a sacred moment," said Liu Shaoyong, the chairman of China Southern Airlines, who piloted the first flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taiwan himself.

"Flying over the strait to Taiwan is like coming home," he told a crowd of well-wishers at the airport welcoming ceremony. "It feels good."

The 100 Chinese tourists aboard got the red-carpet treatment on arrival, including jets of water shooting over the plane, to symbolise the cleaning of dusty travellers, as well as a traditional Chinese "lion dance".

"We were lucky to be on the plane," said Wang Yu, a businessman from Zhuhai in southern China. "Many people were fighting for seats on the inaugural flight."

Ties between Taiwan and China have always been better than the public hostility from the two sides has acknowledged, and trade between them last year was more than 100 billion dollars.

But officially, China sees Taiwan as its territory waiting to be reclaimed by force if needed -- and the Strait, heavily armed on both sides, has long been one of the world's most dangerous potential military flashpoints.

Taiwan banned direct trade and transport links following its split from the communist mainland, but Ma's election opened the door to warmer ties after an especially frosty period under his pro-independence predecessor Chen Shui-bian.

The two sides held their first direct talks in a decade last month.

Those talks led to the flights agreement -- a deal that, for four days a week at least, will eliminate the time-consuming stopovers in Hong Kong or elsewhere that have been the bane of travellers between the two sides.

"Today is a new start in the history of exchanges between the two sides," Wang Yi, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in Beijing.

"At present, cross-Strait relations are facing a rare opportunity for development," Wang said.

Changes have been rapid since Ma took office.

Taiwan banks can now exchange Chinese currency, limits on Taiwanese investment on the mainland have been eased, and some Chinese media outlets which had been banned on the island now have clearance to work.

There will be 36 round-trip flights across the Taiwan Strait weekly, operating from Friday to Monday between six Taiwanese airports and five on the mainland.

The service will meet growing demand after Taiwan allowed up to 3,000 visitors a day from China, giving a much-needed boost to the island's sluggish economy.

More than 700 Chinese nationals in 26 tour groups were to arrive Friday from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and two other cities, while nine flights were set from China to Taiwan.

"I am thrilled to take the first mainland-bound flight in this new charter service," said Zhou Wan-rong, chairman of the student association of Chinghua University in Taiwan.

Russia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) expressed concern over the fighting -- the heaviest in the region so far this year.

"A general mobilisation has been declared," Irina Gagloyeva, a spokeswoman for the separatist government, told AFP. "If the shelling resumes, South Ossetia will respond with heavy weaponry.

Georgian forces launched a large-scale attack on the region overnight, she said, firing from three directions with mortars, grenade launchers and small arms. Three people were killed and 10 wounded.

Georgia denied it has launched the attack, saying its forces had reacted after Georgian villages came under fire from South Ossetian rebels.

"Georgian forces only opened fire in response," Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP. He said there were no reports of casualties in Georgian-controlled areas.

"These attacks are a continuation of the aggressive acts that started yesterday with the attack on Dmitry Sanakoyev," he said, in reference to a pro-Georgian official who was targeted by a roadside bomb on Thursday.

Sanakoyev escaped uninjured from the attack, but three of his bodyguards were wounded.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed grave concern over the clash and urged Georgia to sign a non-aggression pact, Interfax news agency reported.

"We are seriously concerned by the latest events in South Ossetia.... We must persuade Tbilisi to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing non-aggression," Lavrov was quoted as saying on the sidelines of a visit to Turkmenistan.

The OSCE, which monitors a ceasefire in South Ossetia, expressed "profound concern" over the fighting and a series of explosions earlier this week in another separatist Georgian region, Abkhazia.

The incidents "are worrying signs of growing tension," the OSCE's chairman in office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said in a statement.

"I call on all parties to use all necessary tools at their disposal to restore dialogue, a pre-condition for building confidence. The OSCE continues to follow the situation carefully and stands ready to assist the parties to defuse tension," he said.

On Thursday, the separatists had blamed Georgian special forces for a bomb attack that killed a South Ossetian police chief outside his home.

South Ossetia has accused Tbilisi of preparing to retake the rebel region, which broke away from central control during a war in the early 1990s.

Gagloyeva said the general mobilisation was an unusual step that had not been taken since similar shelling in the spring of last year. She alleged that Georgia has also been massing tanks near the region in recent days.

Fighting in the region, a patchwork of Ossetian and Georgian settlements in the mountainous north of the country, generally intensifies during the summer months.

Tensions over South Ossetia and Abkhazia have soared since Moscow announced earlier this year that it was establishing formal ties with the regions' rebel governments.

Tbilisi accuses Russia of seeking to annex the two territories and derail its efforts to join the NATO military alliance. Russia in turn accuses Georgia of preparing to take back the breakaway regions by force.

Abkhazia closed its border with the rest of Georgia earlier this week after 10 people were wounded in a string of explosions the rebels blamed on Tbilisi.

The National Freedom Front (NFF), the breakaway faction of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and the Thamil Makkal Vidudalai Pulligal (TMVP) have formed a political alliance to contest future elections together and cooperate in other matters.

The NFF, led by JVP dissident Wimal Weerawansa, and TMVP leader and Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrankanthan agreed on June 28 to the formation of the alliance after talks at the NFF office in Battaramulla.

"We have the power in provincial level, the NFF have power in Parliament. We joined hands to march ahead in the democratic process. Today, the East is experiencing the dividends of democracy and we are happy to cooperate with the NFF to further the democratic cause," Chandrakanthan told press immediately after the meeting, reported The Island newspaper.

Chandrakanthan told The Sunday Times that in future elections the two sides will contest together and that further discussions will be held between the two sides on political co-operation. “It may be provincial elections or parliamentary elections that we contest together,” he said.

"This is the first of a series of talks between our two parties in seeking a political alliance. We are so happy that the first round was very successful. We would meet again and would conduct several rounds of talks aiming at political cooperation. Both parties agreed to further strengthen our ties," Weerawansa said.

The NFF was represented by Wimal Weerawansa, NFF General Secretary MP Nandana Gunatilake, MPs Anjan Umma, Mohommed Musammil, Central Committee member Raja Gunaratne, and NFF National Organizer Kamal Deshapriya. The TMVP delegation comprised CM Chandrakanthan, TMVP Coordinating Secretary Azad Moulana and CM’s interpreter G. Rahul.

Weerawansa at the end of the talks pinned a miniature national flag on Chandrakanthan’s shirt and said: "This is our present."

Chandrakanthan said Weerawansa, during the run up to eastern provincial council elections last month, had defended his party’s position of continuing to carry arms and contest elections.

“We have an obligation to support his party,” he added.

Chandrakanthan, also known as Pillayan, said they also hoped to have discussions with other parties who wished to join this alliance.

NFF General Secretary Nandana Gunatillake said the cooperation with the TMVP would help to establish democracy in the east while the two sides would work together in future elections.

Gunatillake said that since the TMVP had entered the political mainstream, the NFF had discussed ways and means of helping the TMVP to develop the east.

“All parties should understand our position. We expect people to understand the reality,” Chandrakanthan said in response to a question as to why TMVP members continue to carry weapons.

Is China doing a Myanmar in Sri Lanka by capitalising on the policy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa of diversifying Sri Lanka's geo-political options even while professing close friendship with India? 

2.  That seems to have been one of the concerns of the Government of India, which prompted a two-day visit to Sri Lanka by a team of senior advisers of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh consisting of Shri M. K. Narayanan, the National Security Adviser, Shri Shivsankar Menon, the Foreign Secretary, and Shri Vijay Singh, the Defence Secretary, on June 20 and 21, 2008, for talks with Mr. Rajapaksa and senior Sri Lankan officials and important Tamil leaders. 

3. Officially, the visit was projected as a return visit to reciprocate a similar high-level visit to New Delhi in September last by a Sri Lankan delegation headed by Mr. Gothbaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary, and as a preparatory visit before the forthcoming 15th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) to be held at Colombo from July 27 to August 3, 2008. 

4. Originally, the summit was to have been held at Kandy where the security-related problems would have been less than in Colombo. In March last, the Sri Lankan Government decided to have it in Colombo since, in its view, the infrastructure at Kandy would have been inadequate to host the summit.  The shifting of the venue to Colombo has enhanced the security concerns of India. 

5. Sri Lanka had successfully hosted the 6th SAARC summit at Colombo in 1991 and the 10th in 1998 and had provided effective security to the leaders of the participating countries. The 15th summit will be held at a time when a large number of the Sri Lankan security forces are engaged in an operation to re-capture the control of the Northern Province from the LTTE. Facing increasing pressure from the security forces, the LTTE has stepped up attacks with explosives on soft targets in areas in and around Colombo. Moreover, its bringing into action its planes for air strikes since March last year and the inability of the Sri Lankan security forces to identify where these planes are kept and wherefrom the air attacks are being launched and to intercept them have made the pre-summit security scenario in Colombo worrisome.

6. While the LTTE is unlikely to target the summit or its participants, the summit could provide it with an opportunity to create drama in order to prove its prowess and disprove the claims of the Government that the LTTE has been weakened beyond recovery. Will the Sri Lankan security forces be in a position to provide effective security to all the participants in general and to the Indian Prime Minister in particular? One of the purposes of the visit of the Indian team seems to have been to make an assessment in answer to this question.

7. Another purpose seems to have been to assess the implications to India of Mr. Rajapaksa's policy of bringing in other external state actors into Sri Lanka in order to give Sri Lanka a more geo-political wriggle room. In the past, India had to worry only about China, Pakistan and the US. Now, Mr. Rajapaksa has started courting Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Iran has started playing an important role in the oil refining sector and it is only a question of time before it starts demanding a role in the retail sale of oil, a sector in which the Indian Oil Corporation presently has a pre-eminent role. To counter the fears of the US and the Sunni Arab states over his flirting with Iran, he has also been trying to bring in Saudi Arabia in the oil sector. Malaysia emerged last year as the largest foreign investor in Sri Lanka.  As a result of his moves, India is likely to find its political and economic influence in Sri Lanka gradually shrinking. 

8. In view of India's  improving relations with the US, it is not concerned as it would have been in the past over the increasing US activities in Sri Lanka and the increasing interest of the US Pacific Command in Sri Lanka. The US Navy is eyeing Colombo as a fall-back option in case the continuing use of the Karachi port for logistics and other purposes becomes difficult in view of the anti-US feelings in Pakistan. Presently, India is not highly concerned with the growing economic ties between Sri Lanka and Malaysia either. It can live with it. 

9. What India is concerned is over the increasing activities of China and Pakistan, the entry of Iran and the expected entry of Saudi Arabia into Sri Lanka. While Pakistan's relations with Sri Lanka are largely focussed on military supplies and training, China's relations have greater strategic implications for India----covering military supplies and training, the construction of a modern port at Hambantota in the South and oil exploration in the Mannar area. The expected semi-permanent stationing of an increasing number of Chinese experts in these areas for carrying out these projects will add to the concerns of the Indian security bureaucracy. 

10. The action of the Government of Myanmar in allowing the Chinese to have a semi-permanent presence in the Coco Islands brought the Chinese within monitoring distance of India's space establishments on the Eastern coast. The semi-permanent presence, which the Chinese are now getting in Sri Lanka, will bring them within monitoring distance of India's fast-breeder reactor complex at Kalpakam near Chennai, the Russian-aided Koodankulam nuclear power reactor complex in southern Tamil Nadu and India's space establishments in Kerala. 

11. Reporting on the visit of the senior Indian officials to Colombo, the "Times of India" of June 23, 2008, quoted an unnamed senior Indian official in New Delhi as stating as follows: "The story of Myanmar is being repeated in Sri Lanka. China is already all over the island nation, with a flurry of arms deals, oil exploration and construction projects like the Hambantota port." 

12. The "Times of India" also reported as follows: "Colombo has signed a US $ 37.6 million deal with the Beijing-based Poly Technologies for a wide variety of arms, ammunition, mortars and bombs. Sri Lanka is also getting some Chinese Jian-7 fighters, JY 11-3D air surveillance radars, armoured personnel carriers, T-56 assault rifles ( a copy of AK-47), machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and missiles." 

13. The work on the Hambantota port is progressing fast with typical Chinese efficiency. Sri Lankan sources assert that it will be only a commercial port and not a potential naval base. One has to wait and see. 

14.  The Hambantota port construction is estimated to cost US $ one billion to be lent by the Exim Bank of China. The entire project is expected to be completed in 15 years in four phases. The first phase of construction, which was started in October, 2007, is estimated to cost US $450 million. The entire project, inter alia,   provides for the construction of a gas-fired power plant project, a ship repair unit, a container repair unit, an oil refinery and a bunkering terminal. The bunkering terminal, which   is expected to be completed in 39 months, provides for the terminal to handle up to 500,000 metric tonnes (mt) of oil products a year. 

15.The "Daily News" of Sri Lanka reported on June 19, 2008, as follows: ' A project proposal sent by the China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation for building the bunkering facility and tank farm at the Hambantota harbour has been approved by the project committee and the cabinet-appointed negotiations committee.  "The total value of the project would be $76.5 million and it would be completed by 2010.A set of fuel tanks, bunkering facilities, aviation fuel storage facilities and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facilities will be built under  the project at Hambantota, about 230 km south of Colombo. The media has also reported that although the Hambantota port was initially planned as a service and industrial port, it is expected to be developed as a trans-shipment port at a later stage to handle 20 million containers per year.

16.  Neither India nor China has so far started oil/gas exploration work in the one block each in the Mannar area awarded to them by the Rajapaksa Government without bidding as a gesture of goodwill. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which was offered the block allotted to India without bidding, said in September last that it was not interested in the assigned block, due to low prospectivity and the fact that Sri Lanka was asking for a big bonus in return for this gesture.  The Sri Lankan Government said it would negotiate with the ONGC for a new oil block with greater prospectivity. It is not known whether the Chinese are satisfied with the block offered to them without bidding and, if so, when they would start the exploration. 

17.  Foreign oil companies have not so far been enthusiastic over the prospects of finding oil/gas in exploitable quantities in the Mannar area. Earlier this year, the Sri Lankan Government invited bids for three blocks. Of these, block No 1, which extends over an area of 3,338.10 square kilometers and is nearest to India, received bids from ONGC Videsh, Cairn India, and Niko Resources of Cyprus. ONGC Videsh is a subsidiary of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India.Cairn India, is 69 per cent owned by Cairn Energy of London, which has been active in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.Canada-based Niko Resources is active in Canada, India and Bangladesh. Block No. 2 received bids from both Cairn India and Niko Resources while Block 3, the largest being 4,126.51 sq. km in size, received a bid only from Niko. None of these blocks received any bid from China. The Sri Lankan Government announced on June 6, 2008, that after evaluation it has decided to accept the bid of Cairn India for block No. 1 and invited it to send its representatives to Colombo for negotiations. Fresh bids are to be invited for the other two blocks. The rules stipulate that for each block there should be a minimum of three bids before evaluation. 

18.  In response to an invitation issued by President  Rajapaksa  during his visit  to Teheran in November, 2007. President Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran paid a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka on April 28 and 29, 2008.Since last year, Sri Lanka has been facing economic difficulties due to the drying-up of economic assistance from countries of the European Union (EU) such as Germany because of what they perceive as the indifferent attitude of the Rajapaksa Government to complaints regarding the violation of the human rights of the Tamils and its refusal to seek a political solution to the problem.  Instead of succumbing to the EU pressure on the subject, the Rajapaksa Government turned for increased assistance to other countries such as China and Iran, which did not raise human rights issues as a condition for such assistance. Assistance from Iran was of crucial importance to Sri Lanka because of the Government's inability to pay for its increasingly costly oil imports.  The Government of Ahmadinejad readily agreed to provide oil  at concessional rates to Sri Lanka and to train a small team of officers of the Sri Lankan Army and intelligence in Iran. It also agreed to provide a low-interest loan to Sri Lanka to enable it to purchase defence-related equipment from China and Pakistan. In addition, it agreed to invest US $ 1.5 billion in energy-related projects in Sri Lanka. One of these projects is for the production of hydel power and the other to double the capacity of an existing oil refinery in Sri Lanka. Work on the construction of the hydel project started during Mr. Ahmadinejad's visit. Iranian engineers have already been preparing the project report for doubling the capacity of the refinery and for modifying it to enable it to refine in future Iranian crude to be supplied at concessional rates. The existing capacity is 50,000 barrels a day. 

19.  Mr. Abdul Hameed Mohamed Fowzie, Sri Lanka's Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Development, visited Riyadh in Saudi Arabia towards the end of March,2008. He announced at Riyadh on March 23, 2008, that Saudi Arabia had agreed to train Sri Lankans in the field of exploration and refining of oil in the island. He told the media at Riyadh: “We had fruitful discussions with my counterpart here and we are happy that the Kingdom has agreed to cooperate with Sri Lanka in areas of mutual interests in the field of oil supply, exploration and investments.  We have plans to improve our refining capacity from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels a day and getting Saudi expertise for the proposed expansion will facilitate the successful implementation of the project. Sri Lanka needs a cracker to convert crude into diesel and petrol which would cost the government some $400 million. I have requested my counterpart to recommend that the OPEC Fund assist us in the purchase of this plant." 

20.  Sri Lanka presently gets 70 per cent of its oil from Iran, 10 per cent from Saudi Arabia and 20 per cent from Malaysia and other countries.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies)

Popular NorthEast sportsman and Jaffna Schools Sport Association (JSSA) secretary during late 70's, Mr. T. K. Vilvarajah passed away Sunday June 22 in Ottawa, Canada after a brief illness.

Mr. Vilvarajah served as vice president of Jaffna Amateur Athletic Association during 1993-1996, and was known as the best starter for track events at a national level.

He was also instrumental in developing and training sports officials in track and field in Jaffna district.

He was born at Changkaanai in Jaffna district and had his primary and higher education in Jaffna College. Later, he completed his teachers training college diploma and joined the teaching profession.

Mr. Vilvarajah taught at Parameswara College (present Jaffan campus) and Muthuthamby Mahavidiyalayam from 1972 till he retired in 1982.

He also excelled in soccer and later became a popular referee.

Mr. Vilvarajah’s brother, the late Mr. Tharmarajah, excelled in field hockey and played for the Sri Lankan national team.

A political ally of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has admitted abducting a businessman in Batticaloa leading to renewed tension in the region.

Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) admitted the party 'arrested' three people including the missing businessman, Devadasan Sureshkumar.

However, in an interview with BBC Tamil Service, EPDP councillor Arumailingam rejected accusations that he is still under their custody.

Mr. Sureshkumar was 'abducted' by a group of EPDP members came in a white van, his wife Vijitha Devadasan told BBC Sandeshaya.

An EPDP cadre, Ravi, was questioning Mr. Devadasan at the EPDP office and two others, Vijaya and Segar, promised to release him by 7pm, she added.

“We waited until 10 pm under a tree. When we went there at about 5am, we were told that my husband ran away at about 8pm,” she told BBCSinhala.com.

Councillor Arumailingam says three arrested in Chenkalady, on charges of throwing stones at EPDP vehicles, were later released.

He accused the three including Mr. Devadasan, of being members of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), a charge denied by his wife.

 “We have no connection whatsoever with any organisation. We do not know why he was taken away," she said.

The EPDP members prevented them from lodging a complaint with the police or approaching Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel, she added.

The TMVP is currently led by Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai chandrakanthan (Pillayan).

Minister Douglas Devananda is the leader of the EPDP.

Both the EPDP and TMVP are political allies of Rajapaksa administration.

It is unlawful for anybody apart from the police, to arrest or manhandle people in Sri Lanka.

However, both the TMVP and EPDP have admitted 'arresting' and 'abducting' civilians during recent weeks.

The TMVP is accused by international watchdogs of gross human rights violations including child recruitment.

Eelam Tamils in the Diaspora countries continued their rallies in support of the Tamils’ right to Self-Determination.

The rallies, titled 'Pongu Thamil,' (meaning 'Tamil Upsurge'), are intended as Tamil mobilising through cultural programmes. It resumes a major plank of Tamil political activity.

The very first Pongu Thamil was held on January 17, 2001 by university students in defiance of the Sri Lankan military occupying Jaffna and despite the ongoing fighting in the peninsula.

The Pongu Thamil movement was initiated by university students in the Tamil homeland  to serve as a demonstration of the motivation and defiant will of the Tamil people for the cause of Tamil Eelam.

After the 2002 Ceasefire began, the rally was repeated not only in Jaffna, but as a series of events to bring the Tamil people together in a common act of peaceful political agitation in support of the Eelam cause.

In 2003 and again in 2005, Pongu Thamil rallies took place in all the major Tamil population centres in Northeast Sri Lanka and across the Diaspora.

Following rallies in New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Northern Italy and France, Tamils over the past fortnight also rallied in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Southern Italy.

In South Africa Tamils gathered on June 21 for a Pongu Thamil rally at the Arena Park Regional Hall, in Chatsworth, where they pledged to support the Eelam Tamils' right to statehood, and urged the international community to voice for the Tamils’ rights.

Guest speakers at the event were Deputy Mayor of Ethekwini, Logie Naidoo, and MEC for Sports and Recreation, Mr. A Rajbansi, both of whom spoke out against what they called the “selective morality” of the international community regarding the Tamil freedom struggle.

The key speaker was Dr. Brian Seneviratne, an Australia-based Sinhala expatriate physician, who is supportive of Tamils right to self-determination.

The Program Director was, Mala Lutchmanan, a local radio personality.

A declaration was made, seeking the International Community to recognise Tamils right to self - determination and recognising the LTTE as the legitimate sole representatives also in the future negotiations.

The declaration further urged the international community to seek a just solution and to put an immediate end to the genocide of the Tamils.

On Sunday June 22 over 1,000 Tamils from across Netherlands gathered in front of the Dutch parliament at 2pm to mark Pongu Thamil.

Guests, including Jaffna Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr. S. Kajendran and poet Pulamaipithan, were treated to songs, dances and dramas, all on the Tamil upsurge theme.

On Monday last week, Tamils rallied in front of the United Nations office in Brussels. Beginning at 2pm, the event included songs and speeches by guests including TNA Jaffna MP Mr. S. Kajendran.

Last Saturday Tamils from across Sweden gathered in the capital Stockholm to rally as part of the global Pongu Thamil effort.

Those gathered participated in dramas, dances and songs, all focusing around the Tamil Upsurge theme.

Over 8,000 Tamils gathered in Dusseldorf, Germany, last Saturday to participate in the Pongu Thamil rally.

Beginning at 2pm, the rally marched through the streets shouting “Our land Tamil Eelam” and “Recognise Tamil Eelam”.

The event included Tamil Eelam songs, dramas and dances.

Special guests included the Batticaloa TNA MPs Mr. S. Jeyanandamoorthy and Mr. E Ariyanenthiran as well as Jaffna MP Mr. S. Kajendran.

On Sunday, over 1,000 Tamils in from across Italy and surrounding countries gathered at Piazza Mondello in Palermo to hold their Pongu Thamil rally. Italians also participated in the event.

The chief guest was Battiicaloa TNA parliamentarian Mr. S. Jeyananthamoorthy.

The programme ended with a drama in Tamil and Italian, which conveyed the suffering of the Tamils in the homeland to those who had gathered.

As the World Tamil Movement (WTM) announced that it would challenge its listing as an outlawed terrorist organization, opinions across Canada came out querying the decision by the Canadian government.

Claiming that the Canadian government is acting more like a police state than a democracy, the WTM announced on June 19 that it will appeal Ottawa's decision to add it to a list of terrorist groups.

"They feel they've been tried, convicted and charged without even knowing they were charged," said one of the WTM's lawyers, Marlys Edwardh.

"This is not the conduct of a democracy where people are entitled to meet a challenge in a courtroom . . . it's much more for them like the actions of a police state."

Edwardh insisted that the Toronto-based non-profit organization never received any invitation to submit evidence from the RCMP, which has aggressively been gathering documents about the WTM's funding practices.

"The process involved is entirely without any rights of the individual or the organization to examine the evidence, challenge the conclusions and to put forward their positions."

Calling the listing ‘hasty’, The Gazette in Montreal said “It's quite possible that the WTM is, as [Public Safety Minister Stockwell] Day said this week, a leading front for the Tamil Tiger insurgents back home in Sri Lanka. But so far the evidence against the group is pretty thin.”

“No WTM member has ever been prosecuted for a crime, let alone convicted. And a major raid on the movement's headquarters last spring has resulted in no charges so far,” the paper noted.

“But until they're confirmed, government suspicions alone should never be enough to shut down a voluntary organization of Canadians,” it said.

“It's one thing to ban a foreign entity as terrorists. But it's entirely another matter to ban an organization started and run by Canadians, and registered as a non-profit organization under Canadian laws, without due process or even as much as a day in court to defend the allegations,” wrote Dushy Gnanapragasam in The Globe and Mail.

“But in this climate of colour-coded fear, due process and basic rights are the furthest thing from the minds of people,” the letter to the paper said.

“The Tamil community is shaken, but it is the general populace who should take notice,” wrote Manjula Selvarajah in the National Post newspaper.

 “The Tamil Canadian community looks forward to seeing the Canadian government apply a balanced approach to both parties of this conflict and consider imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions against the government of Sri Lanka for its appalling human rights record. It is time to send a stronger message.”

 “It is unclear what the actual effect of this listing will be on the World Tamil Movement and its ability to continue to exist, as never before has a domestic group been criminalized in this manner,” wrote Harini Sivalingam in an opinion in The Star.

“In the meantime, an entire community has been tarnished and painted with the same brush. After the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by the Canadian government in April 2006, there was significant backlash against members of the Tamil Canadian community who experienced discriminatory treatment at schools, workplaces and in the general public. There is a concern among Tamil Canadians that this listing will have a more profoundly negative impact on the community at large,” she wrote.

“The listing of the WTM is a clear instance that "they have come for the Tamils." Even if one is not a Tamil, we should all speak out and voice our concerns about protecting important,” she wrote.  

Tamil Diaspora quarters lament the inability or unwillingness of the International Community to read the Diaspora public opinion.

They feel that Tamil Nationalism has to be differentiated from the issues between the International Community and the LTTE and no power should dictate or exert insinuating pressure on what the Tamils should aspire for and what not.

According to them, in the guise of protecting the Diaspora from intimidation of terrorism, the International Community is intimidating the Tamil national sentiments and such approaches in the name of the international system are not going to bring in any credibility to the powers involved.

This happened some years ago in a country where members from all communities of Sri Lanka were employed in considerable numbers as expatriate workers.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner, who was a Tamil, strived hard with many innovative ways to bring all communities together for programmes organized by the High Commission.

Due to his efforts, many Tamils who usually avoid visiting Sri Lankan High Commission other than official requirements thought of attending the Independence Day functions that year.

When the occasion came to sing the national anthem, along with Sinhalese who were singing the anthem in Sinhala, a Tamil lady joined singing the Tamil version of the anthem.

Almost all of the Sinhala participants were not even aware of the fact that the national anthem has an official Tamil version for the use of the Tamil people, and it was in regular use in the Tamil areas and in Tamil schools.

As early as in 1945, when the anthem was composed, there existed a parallel Tamil version. The way the country coursed through, the national anthem lost all its credibility with Tamils and the fact that the Tamil version has a statutory status became lost to the Sinhala memory.

Most of the Sinhala participants at the function thought that the lady had sung an LTTE song and she had the guts to do so because the High Commissioner was a Tamil.

It became a big issue of protest and the High Commissioner had to convene a reconciliatory meeting. The Sinhalese were not prepared to accept the parallel status of the versions and demanded apology from the lady.

One among them, ignorant of the fact that the Indian national anthem is in Bengali language, even argued why can’t the Sri Lankan Tamils sing the anthem in Sinhala when all Indians sing theirs in Hindi.

Such intolerance, which many feel was the root cause for the failure of the Sri Lankan state, and the Tamils to seek their own nationalism and symbols.

The issue of symbols seems to have now come to the streets of Europe, involving world governments.

The four-coloured flag with the tiger emblem, which has widely been adopted as the Tamil National flag by the Eelam Tamils since 1990, has become a serious irritant to Sinhala protestors carrying the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka to show their opposition to rallies organized by Tamils in Europe.

The Lion Flag of the Sri Lankan state is seen as a symbol of oppression by the Eezham Tamils. They rejected it long back for the explicit communal symbolism in it.

Even at the time of independence it had been pointed out that the lion in the flag, taken as a symbol of the Sinhala people according to their myths, holding a sword against minorities represented by the colour stripes in the flag, was a deliberately designed insult to the minorities.

The Sinhala Buddhists also have another flag for their cultural identity, known as the Buddhist flag, which was designed a century ago by a group of people in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil National Flag, described as symbolizing the political, social and cultural aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka was declared in 1990 by the LTTE, at a time when it was not banned by any government. The Tamil National Flag was also differentiated from the LTTE flag by having no legend on it. The Flag soon got into wide use with the masses and became a symbol of their nationalist aspirations.

Citing the ban on the LTTE, and encouraged by the attitude of some governments, the Sinhala protesters now demand a ban on the Tamil National Flag with the police of EU countries, seeing it an opportunity of dismembering Tamil nationalism.

What surprises the Tamil circles in Europe is the ready connivance of the police of some of the EU countries with the demand of the Sinhala protestors.

In Italy the police, citing Sinhala protestors, requested the Pongu Tamil organisers to bring down the Tamil National Flag, which had been already hoisted. The Italian police have reportedly told the Tamil activists that they are under severe pressure from some quarters to take action against them.

The arrest of around 30 Tamil activists in Italy is seen as a repercussion to defiance and to discourage Tamil Nationalist programmes in future.

In France, it is said that the Pongu Tamil organisers were asked by the authorities not to hoist the Tamil National Flag.

The timing of the ban on the World Tamil Movement (WTM) in Canada is also seen by the Tamil circles as a pre-emptive move to prevent holding Pongu Tamil rally.

The uniformity in the overreaction of certain countries has made many to suspect a single hand behind, pressurizing them.

It is not merely a flag affair.

It is said that the Sri Lankan government has become oversensitive to any demonstration of overwhelming Tamil Diaspora support to Tamil Nationalism as it may jeopardize the claims it makes to impress the International Community.

It is also said that now it has embarked upon a global programme to erase out Tamil Nationalism and cultural identity of the Tamil Diaspora by targeting their cultural institutions, symbols and media by pressurizing governments and commercial establishments.

A South Asian power is also actively involved in assisting the Sri Lanka government in this venture.

Its veteran intelligence officers, who had long connections with the Sri Lankan affairs, were seen recently in potential world capitals, trying to organize Tamil groups to dissuade them from the goals of Eelam Tamil Nationalism.

The Diaspora is viewed as the vanguard of Tamil Nationalism and it has become the target of all antagonists concerned, according to a leading Diaspora journalist.

What is lamented in the Tamil Diaspora quarters is the inability or unwillingness of the International Community to read the Diaspora public opinion. They feel that Tamil Nationalism has to be differentiated from the issues between the International Community and the LTTE and no power should dictate or exert insinuating pressure on what the Tamils should aspire for and what not.

The Pongu Tamil rallies and show of flags involve spontaneous and voluntary participation of people who are under no compulsion or intimidation to do so, said Diaspora Tamil circles.

According to them, in the guise of protecting the Diaspora from the 'intimidation of terrorism', the International Community is intimidating the Tamil national sentiments and such approaches in the name of the international system are not going to bring in any credibility to the powers involved.

Today it is not weapons or terrorism that brings down empires, but it is the loss of credibility with people that does the job.

One can already see how the money of a great power got halved in no time, said a political analyst.

French charity Action Contra la Faim (ACF or Action Against Hunger) has began to approach international donors to Sri Lanka to establish an international inquiry into the killing of 17 of its local staffers in Muttur in August 2006.

France has allegedly already come out in support of the initiative. French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner has the non-governmental organisation that France would explore the possibility for such an inquiry, an ACF official said.

Head of ACF communications Lucile Grosjean told The Sunday Leader that coinciding with the launch of a new campaign over the Muttur murders on June 17, the organisation had first made its appeal to France.

"As the event on the 17th was the official launching of the campaign aimed at obtaining an international inquiry, ACF requests the support of France, European Union, Co-chairs of the Tokyo conference at this specific moment. We decided to go step by step asking first for the support of France," she said adding that the French government had reacted positively.

"As requested by ACF, we are going to explore with our international partners the possibility of setting up an international commission of inquiry," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris on June 17 according to transcripts made available by the French Foreign Ministry.

It is likely that a series of discussions would be held between representatives of France and other EU countries, after France takes over the European Union Presidency on July 1, reported the Daily Mirror.

“France is not going to take the aid agency’s request lightly as the organisation’s ‘Justice for Mutur’ campaign has caught the attention of the French government. Discussions will be held after July 1 and an international inquiry into the Mutur massacre is likely,” the paper quoted French sources as saying.

Grosjean however said that the organisation had only received the French response and was however not aware as to how the other countries would react to the idea of an international inquiry.

Grosjean told the Daily Mirror that while the organization was relieved at the step taken by the French government, it would continue with its international public awareness campaign in  France under the slogan – ‘Justice for Muttur’ – to dramatize and underscore the savagery of the massacre.

Kouchner was an original member of the International Independent Eminent Group of Persons (IIEGP) that was set up to assist the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry. He resigned when he was appointed as the Foreign Minister of the Nicolas Sarkozy administration.

The IIEGP pulled out of Sri Lanka in March, followed by ACF which had maintained a single member presence in the country to handle the matters relating to a commission of inquiry into the Muttur massacre.

However Commission of Inquiry Chairman N. Udulagama told the Daily Mirror that the commission would not extend support to France to conduct an international inquiry as ACF was no longer functioning in Sri Lanka.

Udulagama said that while ACF was entitled to its views and to seek support from the international community, there was nothing much the Sri Lankan government could do to be of any assistance as ACF had withdrawn from the country before the conclusion of the local investigations, the paper reported.

“ACF left the country two months after the CoI began its sittings without assisting the investigations. Now it seeks an international probe. What does it now expect us to do?” Justice Udulagama queried.

No mandate for federal solution – JVP

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) last Thursday stressed President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not get a mandate from the people to implement a federal solution but rather only to safeguard the unitary status of the country. JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe also slammed India for what he described as ‘its invasive dictatorial foreign policy’ and urged the government to reveal the contents and outcome of talks it held with the high level Indian delegation which visited the country.  The JVP said neither the Indian government nor the Sri Lankan government had so far issued even a statement on the outcome of the talks. “During the talks, the Sri Lankan side was confined to the Rajapaksa family because it is now virtually running the entire country by handling everything from defence, economy to foreign affairs. Even though the President has failed to mention what they discussed we have received information from local and Indian sources as to what had transpired during the talks,” he said. Mr. Amarasinghe stressed President Rajapaksa did not get a mandate from the people to implement a federal solution but to safeguard the unitary status of the country. (Daily Mirror)

Court restrains Muslims' resettlement

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court extended the term of a restraining order on last month to prevent members of the Muslim community from being settled in an area the Sinhalese have claimed as a historical religious site in the Eastern Province.  The court issued the restraining order in May. On June 19 the court extended the term of the order till mid-September when the case would be taken up for hearing. Some 500 houses have been built in the Deegavapi area of the Eastern Province meant to settle Muslims affected by the December 2004 tsunami devastation. The all Buddhist Monk party Janatha Hela Urumaya (JHU) or the National Heritage Party has petitioned the Supreme Court and sought a restraining order to prevent the Muslim settlement at Deegavapi. The JHU said the area has been identified as a Buddhist religious site of historical importance. (Xinhua)

Pastor attacked by home guards

An evangelical pastor in eastern Sri Lanka was admitted to hospital June 24, a day after he was attacked by militant government forces because of his Christian activities. Reverend Fernando from the Methodist Church in Ampara, a remote city 200 kilometres east of the capital Colombo, was apparently attacked in the area while returning home from a church group meeting in the suburb of Uhana. "He is currently receiving treatment for his injuries in hospital," said Britain based rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), a major umbrella group, said in published remarks that the pastor "sensed that the men were trying to lure him into a trap, and asked them to come to the church instead if they wished to discuss Christianity. The men then attacked him, and warned him not to return to the village." The attackers are believed to be members of the Gramarakshaka Niladhari, or 'Home Guards', an auxiliary force established by the government to assist the police and military in security duties. (CSW)