The Sri Lanka government has called for investors to exploit the ilmenite rich sands along a fiercely contested stretch of the island’s eastern coastline, renewing resentment among the region’s Tamil residents, who protest they are denied a share of the benefits.

Mining in the Pulmoddai region, 52 kilometres north of Trincomalee, came to a halt in the late nineties following the sinking of two ships transporting ore by the Liberation Tigers amid the escalating conflict.

Sandwiched between Trincomalee – the Sri Lankan Navy’s most important base – and Mullaitivu – the LTTE’s naval headquarters, Pulmoddai is already in a strategically sensitive location.

But its valuable sands have also been a source of intense contention between the region’s predominantly Tamil inhabitants and the Sinhala-dominated government in Colombo.

Last week Sri Lanka’s Public Enterprises Reform Commission called for proposals from investors to exploit the rich minerals sands deposit operated by Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd in Pulmoddai and to manufacture and export value added mineral sands based products, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Ilmenite, rutile and zircon are the minerals derived from sands on the seashore and, unlike other countries that have to mine heavily to excavate mineral deposits, in Pulmoddai the minerals only have to be separated from the sea sand.

Ilmenite and rutile are used to produce titanium dioxide and in the manufacture titanium metal while zircon is used in the ceramic industry as a refractory in the manufacture of moldings.

Lanka Minerals Sands Ltd operates the Pulmoddai deposit, one of the richest mineral in the world, with a very low cost of production.

However, production ceased in September 1997 when the Liberation Tigers sank a ship carrying the mineral rich sand and since then the company confined its activities to selling its existing stockpiles.

The LTTE stated that it had only destroyed the Chinese-crewed Panamanian registered ‘MV Cordiality’ because it was being used to move ilmenite ore from the traditionally Tamil Pulmoddai area for sale abroad.

The LTTE had already hit another cargo vessel, the ‘MV Princess Wave’ a month earlier. A large explosion, possibly caused by a sea mine or an underwater charge, ripped a hole in the hull as the ship was loading sand off Pulmoddai.

The LTTE said that the second strike was carried out because the Sri Lankan government had ignored the warning served by the first. The Tigers also said that the attack “should not be construed as an act of hostility directed towards any particular trade or shipping organisation”.

Tamil resentment over the Pulmoddai sands was summed up by the murdered journalist Mr Sivaram Dharmeratnam, writing for the Tamil language Virakesari newspaper in 2004.

“In countries affected by civil war, often disagreements on distribution of national wealth are a root cause of the conflict,” he argued.

“The Sinhala nation, which earned several millions of dollars exporting ilmenite, an important natural resource of the Tamil homeland, waves the articles of constitution when rejecting Tamils demand for a small portion of the revenue.”

Successive Sri Lankan governments have continued a strategic project to secure the area since independence from Britain.

A large Sinhala colony was established in the nearby Manal Aru region (since given a Sinhala name, Weli Oya) by driving out the Tamils living there.

A significant Sri Lankan military presence has since been established in the Weli Oya area and in the villages around Pulmoddai.

Apart from targeting ships deployed to transport the ore out of the region, the LTTE has persistently frustrated the Sri Lankan government’s attempts to secure the Pulmoddai region, launching repeated harassment raids in the area.

In the light of Sri Lanka’s efforts to resume mining, renewed acrimony seems likely.

Ilmenite could prove a valuable source of revenue for the cash-strapped Sri Lankan government and the LTTE have said they intend to prevent the ‘plundering’ of the Tamil region’s wealth by the state “particularly as the proceeds are being used to arm the predominantly Sinhalese Sri Lankan Army”.

The new investors are being sought to process the ilmenite after Lanka Minerals Sands Ltd recently began transporting Ilmenite from Pulmoddai to Trincomalee, with the aim of shipping from Trincomalee.

Company officials said they envisage prospective investors would process ilmenite to make synthetic rutile, titanium slag and titanium dioxide pigment, the Sunday Times said.

“We will short list the proposals and then negotiate with them on what sort of products to make,” a company official was quoted by the paper as saying.

The government re-commissioned the Pulmoddai Ilmenite factory last year sixteen years after it was forced to close when the Liberation Tigers blasted its fresh water supply lines from the Yan Oya River. The factory processes sand excavated from the beaches of Pulmoddai to separate ilmenite and rutile ores for export.

Almost 5 million tons of ilmenite are known to be in the region, which can theoretically be mined at the rate of 150,000 tons a year. In addition, rutile and zircon can be mined at the rates of 10,000 tons and 6,000 tons respectively.

The Pulmoddai beach deposit is replenished annually during the north-east monsoon and the reserve is estimated to last for over 25 years at an annual mining rate of 150,000 tonnes.

The Sri Lankan government’s main customers for ilmenite are Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha Ltd (Japan), ACI (US), Derby & Co (British), Currumbin Minerals Ltd (Australia), and Rare Earth’s Ltd (India’s state-owned firm).

Sandy treasures of Pulmoddai [SundayTimes,June 23, 2002 ]

Two brothers killed in Canadian hit-and-run

Two Tamil brothers were killed by a speeding car following a dispute outside a Canadian night club, press reports said.

The Nagulasigamany brothers, Chandrasekar (Chandru), 21, and Soumiyan (Soumi), 19, died in Waterloo early Friday at the climax of a dispute between two groups, police said.

Police will not specify whether both groups were of Tamil origin, the Toronto Star said.

The brothers were attending a back-to-school party at the Revolution Night Club. A dispute began between two sides and both groups met again in an industrial area.

At 1:15 a.m., three men were struck by a vehicle. The brothers were pronounced dead in hospital. The third man, whom police have identified as the target, was released the same day from hospital.

The motorist fled and is wanted for homicide.

“What a devastating loss to our family,” Path Sithamparanatham, an uncle to the brothers, told the funeral gathering. “Two of them at the same time.”

“I request that everybody do the right thing,” he said. “Come forward with any bits of information.”

The family arrived in Canada in 1994 from the village of Jaffma in the predominantly Tamil region of Sri Lanka, he told the Toronto Star. The couple’s only other child, their firstborn son, died as an infant in Sri Lanka.

“The world lost two model youths,” the Tamil Youth Organization of Canada said in a statement distributed at the funeral.

Tamil boy missing in London

British police say they are increasingly concerned for the well being of a 14 year old Tamil boy who went missing in London last week.

Kajandgan Annanathuri was last seen around 08:15 last Thursday, outside North Primary School in Southall, which is the London district of Ealing, police said.

Kajandgan does not attend this school, but he walked there with his cousin, who is a pupil there.

Kajandgan Annanathuri

Police described the Kajandgan as 5’2” tall, thin built, with brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black or blue t-shirt with two leaves on front, with dark jeans or trousers.

“He does not speak any English and has only been in the country for three months. He has not gone missing before and his disappearance is out of character,” Chris Mullally, the Ealing Police’s press liason officer said in a statement.

Police believe Kajandgan does not have any access to money of travel cards and described his disappearance as “totally out of character.”

Anyone with information that may assist the inquiry should call the Missing Person Unit at Southall police station on (0) 20 8246 1040, (or out of hours the control room at Ealing police station on 020 8810 1212).

Denmark Tamils hold volleyball competition

Ten clubs of Tamil expatriate youth took part in the annual volleyball competition hosted by the Tamil Coordinating Committee of Denmark Sunday.

The Great Heroes’ Challenge Cup competition got underway at 9am with the lighting of the traditional flame and the observation of a minute’s silence in tribute to the Tamils who fell in their people’s struggle for self-determination.

The Set-up category of the competition was won by Alkmaar Tamils Sports Club. Its namesake from Beverwijk came third while Rainbow SC from The Hague took second spot.

The Over-game tournament was won by Tamil SC’s first team from Beverwijk, while the second team from the same club took third place. Alkmaar’s Tamil SC came second.

Awards and prizes for the leading teams were handed out by officials from the Tamil Coordinating Committee. The all-day event, the first of many cultural and sporting events held each year to mark Heroes’ Day, concluded at around 7pm.

Introduction

It may be timely to pose the question of as from when did Tamil civilisation exist. The tsunami of December 26, 2004 vividly demonstrated the destructive force of tidal waves and what havoc the attendant deluges could cause. It was, however, not unknown to the ancient Tamils who occupied southern India from that time. Their traditions refer to extensive lands submerged in the remote past that had once existed in the Indian Ocean, south of Kanya Kumari or Cape Comorin. They had indeed a word for such happenings. They called it kadatkol - meaning the sea devouring the land.

The name of the lost lands is Kumari Kandam. At the time of those inundations, they were home to a high Tamil civilisation that hosted the First and Second Tamil Sangams or Acadamies of Advanced Learning. The Tamil language and literature as well as the philosophy and culture were cultivated and fostered through such Sangams. The works of these two Sangams were lost when the cities in which they were created were submerged by such inundations. Though the tradition of these Tamil Sangams and the deluges which destroyed them lived on, there was no historical evidence forthcoming to back them until very recently.

Recent Developments

The current state of play as known to history, until the recently emerging evidence, is that the history of the Tamils is said to begin in the pre-historic or more acceptably in the proto-historic period of about 500 BC. Tamil / Dravidian culture associated with the megalithic sites in places such as Adichanallur (more correctly Adityanallur) in the Tinnevely District of Tamilnadu and across the Palk Straits in Pomparippu in north-western Ilankai/ Sri Lanka are regarded by historians / archaeologists as belonging to the Dravidian peoples of whom the Tamils at that time were their first and foremost representatives.

Those finds from Adichanallur though dated earlier to be around 300 BC have now been shown to date back to 1,700 BC, following the currently ongoing excavations with advanced dating techniques. The archaeologists, studying the inscriptions on stones and artefacts, reported recently on that basis that Tamil civilisation existed more than 4,000 years ago. They went on to say that Tamil / Dravidian civilisation which began in present day Tamilnadu spread to the other parts of the world from there, as they considered Adichanallur to be the cradle of Tamil civilisation. Linguistic data of Tamil and other existing Dravidian langages too support only a movement from south to north of the spread of those languages, as Tamil is shown to be their parent language.

This present state of knowledge has however received a startling knock from another quarter with the recent underwater archaeological finds relating to the lost Tamil continent of Kumari Kandam. For what those discoveries reveal, though at the presnt moment only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, has been uncovered, is the existence of a lost continent and lost cities in an antediluvian era stretching back before the melt-down of the Last Ice Age and the inundations of those lands.

The evidence thus far reveals the existence of man-made structures twenty-three metres beneath the sea, five kilometres off the Tarangambadi- Poompuhar coast near Nagapattinam in South India. Its existence at such a depth is calculated as having taken place over many thousand years ago. This ties in with the geological evidence of such happenings at that time as well as the Tamil traditions of the first two Tamil Sangams referred to earlier.

The unfolding archaeological and geological evidence is proving to be the historical validation that Tamil civilisation which reached a high-point during those two Tamil Sangams had their beginnings 11,000 years ago or circa 9,000 BC. What is the evidence currently available, be it archaeological, geological or other which will substantiate the Kumari Kandam tradition?

Literary Evidence

According to th Kumari Kandam tradition, over a period of about just 11,000 years, the Pandyans, a historical dynasty of Tamil kings, formed three Tamil Sangams, in order to foster among their subjects the love of knowledge, literature and poetry. These Sangams were the fountain head of Tamil culture and their principal concern was the perfection of the Tamil language and literature. The first two Sangams were not located in what is now South India but in antediluvian Tamil land to the south which in ancient times bore the name of Kumari Kandam, literally the Land of the Virgin or Virgin Continent.

The first Sangam was head-quartered in a city named Then-madurai (Southern Madurai). It was patronised by a succession of eighty-nine kings and survived for an unbroken period of 4,400 years during which time it approved an immense collection of poems and literature. At the end of that golden age, the First Sangam was destroyed when a deluge arose and Then-madurai itself was swallowed by the sea along with large parts of the land area of Kumari Kandam.

However, the survivors, saving some of the books, were able to relocate further north. They established a Second Sangam in a city called Kavatapuram which lasted 3,700 years. The same fate befell this city as well, when it too was swallowed by the sea and lost forever all its works with the sole exception of the Tolkappiyam, a work on Tamil grammar. Following the inundation of Kavatapuram, the survivors once again relocated northward in a city identified with modern Madurai in Tamilnadu, then known as Vada-madurai (Northern Madurai). The Third Sangam lasted for a period of 1850 years and most scholars agree that that Sangam terminated around 350 AD.

Literary evidence of the lost continent of Kumari Kandam comes principally from the literature of the Third Tamil Sangam and the historical writings based on them. Many of them refer to the lost Tamil lands and to the deluges which ancient peoples believed had swallowed those lands. The Silappathikaram, a well known Tamil literary work, for instance mentions, “ the river Prahuli and the mountain Kumari surroundered by many hills being submerged by the raging sea”.

The Kalittogai, another literary work, specifically refers to a Pandyan king losing territories to the sea and compensating the loss by conquering new territories from the Chera and Chola rulers to the north. In his commentary on the Tolkappiyam, Nachinarkiniyar mentions that the sea submerged forty-nine nadus (districts), south of the Kumari river. Adiyarkkunelar, a medieval commentator, says that before the floods, those forested and populated lands between the Prahuli and Kumari rivers stretched 700 kavathams, ie for about 1,000 miles. As observed by Prof.(Dr) M. Sunderam, “The tradition of the loss of a vast continent by deluge of the sea is too strong in the ancient Tamil classics to be ignored by any serious type of inquiry.”

Archaeological & Geological Evidence

A discovery made by a team of marine archaeologists from India’s National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in March 1991 has begun to bring about a sea-change. Working the off-shore of Tarangambadi-Poompuhar coast in Tamilnadu near Nagapattinam, a research vessel equipped with side-scan sonar, identified a man-made object and described it as “ a horse shoe shaped structure”. In 1993, it was examined again and NIO’s diver archaeologists reported that the U-shaped structure lies at a depth of 23 metres and about 5 kms offshore.

The significance of that discovery is that it is a much older structure to any discovered earlier. Subsequent explorations carried out by Graham Hancock and his team, who working in association with Dr Glen Milne, a specialist in glacio-isotacy and glaciation induced sea-level change, were able to show that areas at 23 metres depth would have submerged about 11,000 years before the present time or 9,000 BC. The historical significance of that fact is that it makes the U-shaped structure 6,000 years older than the first monumental architecture of Egypt or of ancient Sumer or Mesopotamia (in present day Iraq) dated around 3,000 BC and traditionally regarded as the oldest civilisations of antiquity.

The Durham geologists led by Dr. Glen Milne have shown in their maps that South India between 17,000-7,000 years ago extended southward below Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari) incorporating present day Ilankai/ Sri Lanka. It had an enhanced offshore running all the way to the Equator. The maps portray the region as no history or culture is supposed to have known it. The much larger Tamil homeland of thousands of years ago as described in the Kumari Kandam tradition takes shape. It supports the opening of the Kumari Kandam flood tradition set in the remote pre-historic period of 12,000 –10,000 years ago. The inundation specialists confirm that between 12,000-10,000 years ago Peninsular India’s coastlines would have been bigger than what they are today before they were swallowed up by the rising seas at the end of the Last Ice Age.

With its description of submerged cities and lost lands, the Kumari Kandam tradition predicted that pre-historic ruins more than 11,000 years old should lie underwater at depths and locations off Tamilnadu’s coast. The NIO’s discovery and Dr. Milne’s calculations now appear to confirm the accuracy of that prediction. At that period of time, Ilankai/ Sri Lanka was part and parcel of South India. It is, however, in the inundation map for 10,600 years ago as seen that the island to the south of Kanya Kumari had disappeared to a dot, and the Maldives further ravaged.

But more importantly, a neck of sea is seen separating Tuticorin in South India from Mannar in what is now Ilankai/ Sri Lanka. It is however in the map for 6,900 years ago that the separation of Ilankai/ Sri Lanka from the South Indian mainland is complete as it is today. Ilankai/ Sri Lanka’s separate existence as an island, so it seems, began 6,900 years ago or circa 4,900 BC.

Conclusion

At present, no civilisation, as known to current history, existed in the Tamil lands of South India around 9,000 BC. Yet the discovery of the U-shaped structure by India’s marine archaeologists leads us to seriously consider that it was the work of a civilisation that archaeologists had failed to identify as its ruins lie submerged so deep beneath the sea. As Mr. S. R. Rao, the doyen of Indian marine archaeology, stated in February 2002, “I do not believe it is an isolated structure; further exploration is likely to reveal others around it”.

Though it is understood that no further explorations have taken place since 1995, the Boxing Day Tsunami of last year can be expected to renew interest in them. There is ample scope for socio-anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists and scholars of Tamil and Tamil history to further research the subject. Given that the First and Second Sangams were a golden age of literary, artistic and musical creativity amongst the Tamils, we are looking at a civilisation which had reached a high level of development, organisation and cultural advancement from as early as 11,000 years ago from today.

N. Parameswaran is a writer on Tamil history. His latest book is ‘Tamil Trade and Cultural Exchange.’ His previous publications are ‘Early Tamils of Lanka-Ilankai’ and ‘Medieval Tamils in Lanka-Ilankai.’ He can be contacted on +61-8-3541039.

The Sri Lankan Government has agreed to a request by the United States to shelve the controversial Anti-Conversion Bill, the Daily Mirror reported Monday.

A top US State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity said extensive discussions were held with the Sri Lankan government to express US concerns before receiving a positive reply.

However he said it was up to the Sri Lankan Government to translate the pledge into action now.

The development comes in the wake of a call by the hardline monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), to table the Anti-Conversion Bill in Parliament before the November 17 Presidential poll.

The JHU this week accused the United States of “blatant interference” in Sri Lankan affairs and of shamelessly coercing the government to shelve the bill.

Accused the US of interfering in religious affairs and human rights in Sri Lanka, JHU policy maker Champika Ranawaka told The Island newspaper that religious fundamentalism is strong in the United States and people practicing Islam are discriminated against there.

The State Department official told the Daily Mirror in addition to the Sri Lankan government officials, discussions were held with representatives of various religious groups - including Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims.

He observed that although several of these representatives spoke of instances where alleged unethical conversions had taken place, when asked for evidence, none could provide any.

The official added that any legislation banning unethical conversion as in the case of six states in India, always had the tendency to be abused by authorities and that the issue had been raised even in the Sri Lanka chapter of the 2005 US International Religious Freedom report, due this week.

The Freedom of Religion Bill, widely known as the “Anti Conversion Bill” that was gazetted on June 27.

It was presented to Parliament last year by the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to pre-empt the Bill Against Forcible Conversion presented by the JHU.

Claiming to protect the freedom of religion, the bill, paradoxically, seeks to prohibit ‘unethical’ conversions through compulsion or coercion from one religion to another.

It clearly targets Sri Lanka’s Christian communities. The bill declares, for example, that if the offence is committed by a body of persons all members of the body are deemed to be guilty unless they are able to prove that it was committed without their knowledge.

Christian groups had expressed “deep concern and regret” when the bill was proposed, arguing it would “enforce limitations on religious freedom, legitimise violence and harassment of minority religious groups and further de-fragment our already divided society.”

The UN has also expressed concern at these moves. A United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief had warned that bill could result in the “persecution of religious minorities” instead of protecting and promoting religious tolerance.

Sri Lanka plans to spend more and borrow further next year as expenses for defence and fuel related subsidies escalate, reports said this week.

Sri Lanka’s has substantially increased its military budget for next year to almost US$700 million, the Sunday Times said this week. The rise of over 20% comes amid a stepping up of violence in the island’s east between Army-backed paramilitaries and the Liberation Tigers.

In a report titled “Defence takes lion’s share of 2006 budget,” the Sunday Times said the proposed budget raises expenditure on the military next year to Rs. 69,470 million (US$690 million), a rise of nearly Rs. 13,000 from this year’s Rs. 56,300 million (US$ 554 million).

The figures tabled in parliament show that the biggest chunk of capital spending will be by the air force which gets four billion rupees (about US$40 million), up from 3.3 billion rupees this year, AFP reported.

The army’s total spending goes up to 41.9 billion rupees, up from 32 billion rupees this year.

Defence is among several areas that have been allocated increased funding in the government estimates for the coming year, the paper said.

Sri Lanka is already digging deep for extra cash after surging crude prices will see its oil import bill exceed US$ 800 million to US$ 1.5 billion this year, LBO reported.

Overall borrowing programme will expand by Rs. 100 billion to Rs. 536 billion, as the government leans further on foreign debt, rupee loans and government bonds. The programme excludes Rs. 300 billion ceiling set for borrowings through treasury bills.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka hopes to contain its budget deficit to eight percent, Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundara said adding that the government plans to raise US$ 100 million through an international bond issue this month, aimed at its migrant workers.

With tsunami related costs also piling up, Jayasundara says Sri Lanka has asked the Group of Eight industrial countries to extend its one-year debt moratorium for another twelve months.

G8 members waived off US$ 250 million due in interest payments this year.

The total government expenditure for 2006 was estimated at Rs. 568 billion, up from 438 billion in 2005, in the Appropriation Bill for next year to be presented by Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama in Parliament on Tuesday, the paper said.

Some analysts argue Sri Lanka has developed a domestic ‘war economy’ where the defence budget is one of the largest injections of state funds into the market.

“Army recruitment and compensation have become the primary source of resources transferred into the economy of the rural poor in the Sinhalese-majority regions of the South,” says Prof. Kenneth Bush in his book “Learning to read between the lines: the intra-group dimensions of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.”

The rural economy of the rural poor in the South is “three times more dependent on ‘military remittances’ than official poverty alleviation programmes (Janasaviya and Samuradhi); and more dependent on Army recruitment and compensation than on overseas remittances,” he says.

“In effect, successive governments [have] been using military employment as a grand youth employment cum poverty alleviation programme,” Prof. Bush argues.

Amid record inflows into developing countries, Sri Lanka remains the least attractive for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in South Asia, judging by the UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2005 released last week.

According to the report Sri Lanka had managed to draw US$ 233 million in FDI in 2004, higher by only US$ 4 million or a paltry 1.7% over 2003.

However FDI inflows to rest of South Asia have been booming. Inflows into the region amounted to $ 7 billion, up by 31% over 2003.

India attracted the biggest chunk of US$ 5.3 billion, up by 25% or $ 1 billion in 2004. Pakistan saw a high 78% increase ($ 418 million) to $ 952 million while Bangladesh recorded a 71% increase ($ 192 million) to $ 460 million in 2004.

Analysts said that Sri Lanka’s success in attracting FDI was dismal considering the so-called open and liberal policies it has maintained.

According to a recent World Bank survey, Sri Lanka ranked at number 75 in ease of doing business ahead of competitors such as India’s 116th and China’s 91st ranking but behind several South Asian countries such as Maldives 31, Nepal 55, Pakistan 60 and Bangladesh 65.

In the World Bank’s Ease of Doing business report it was highlighted that Sri Lanka’s rigid labor regulations and mandated high severance payments continue to represent a significant barrier to job creation.

The country is ranked 150th on “difficulty of firing.” Only in Sierra Leone are companies required to offer more severance pay to dismiss redundant workers.

Meanwhile UNCTAD said last week after three years of decline, global foreign direct investment rose slightly in 2004. The rebound was the result of increased flows to developing countries as FDI in developed countries continued to fall.

At US$ 648 billion, global FDI inflows were 2% higher than in 2003. But the global figure masks diverging trends. Flows to developing countries surged by 40% to reach US$ 233 billion - the second highest level ever recorded - while developed countries saw inflows decline by 14%, to US$ 380 billion.

“The high level of FDI to developing countries is likely to be sustained”, said Anne Miroux, head of the team that produced the UNCTAD report.

TNCs are seeking to improve their competitiveness by expanding in the fast-growing markets of emerging economies and by seeking new ways to reduce costs, she said.

This is affecting the location of even highly knowledge-intensive activities, such as research and development.

Higher prices for many commodities have further stimulated FDI in those developing countries rich in natural resources- another trend likely to continue, she added.

The top five FDI recipients among developing countries were Hong Kong, China; Brazil; Mexico; and Singapore.

Courtesy Sunday Times

Several hundred Tamils from Australia gathered in Sydney Sunday to support the Tamil Resurgence rallies being staged in Sri Lanka's Northeast.

Federal Members of the Australian parliament, Ms Julie Owens, and John Murphy, Chairman of International Commission of Jurists Justice John Dowd, attended the event organised by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), an umbrella organization of Tamil groups in the region.

Representatives of more than thirty member organizations participated in lighting the flame of resurgence at the beginning of the event presided by AFTA chairman Mr Ana Pararajasingham.

John Murphy, a Federal Member of the Australian parliament, commended the Co chairs to the Peace Process for calling for the disarming of the paramilitaries and expressed the view that “ this alone is insufficient” and called for the “complete withdrawal of the Sri Lankan armed forces from the Tamil Homeland.”

The key note speaker, Justice John Dowd, a prominent Australian Human Rights Activist, and Chairman of the International Commission of Jurists drew attention to the need to keep the international community informed of developing political situation in Sri Lanka.

A petition calling for “a political solution to the conflict based on the Tamil people right to self-determination and an end to the occupation by the Sri Lankan armed forces of the Tamil Homeland,” addressed to the Australian Prime Minister was signed by those attending the event.

The grand consecration of the new Perth Hindu temple was held on September 8, 2005, temple officials said.

About 2000 people attended the Maha Kumbhabishekam event they said.

The ceremonies were conducted by Shri Parameswara Kurukkal (Malaysia) in the presence of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (Hawaii) with the assistance of priests from Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia and other temples in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane).

The consecration ceremony sequence commenced with the Ganesha Hawan on 13 July 2005 and continued daily with the Yantra Pooja for 48 days as per Hindu customs, they said.

Apart from he central shrines of Shiva, Devi and Ganesha, the temple also has shrines for Vishnu, Lakshmi, Murugan and Hanuman.

“The outstanding architecture of the temple is the work of a dedicated team of local and overseas devotees,” temple officials said.

The architecture drawings were done by the famous architect Mr V S Thurairajah.

The land for the temple site was consecrated by Swami Shantananda in a ceremony in 1987, with construction of the multi purpose hall commencing in March 1989.

The foundation ceremony for the new temple was held on 10 April 1998.

Artisans from India led by Stapathi,Devakottai S.Nagarajan, who commenced detailed work in August 2002, produced intricate sculptural work on shrine domes, on pillars and temple walls.

“Indeed it is a building which will create its place in the History of Western Australia,” temple officials said.

“Acknowledging the fact that the Hindus in Western Australia come from different countries and regions, our new temple is an outstanding example of multiculturalism within the Hindus,” temple officials said.

The architecture includes influence from North India (Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan), Western India (Gujarat), South India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Kerala) and Sri Lanka, they pointed out.

The South side Gopuram (or entrance door) and all the icons in the South side of the temple including Vishnu, Lakshmi and Hanuman are in the North Indian pattern.

The sculptures on the wall Ram Parivar, Vishnu, Sri Krishna and Ganesha are in the North Indian and Gujrati pattern.

The North side Gopuram is in Gujrati pattern.

The North side icons, Kartikeya, Vasanta Mandapam, Utsava Mandapam and sculptures on the wall are in the South Indian and Sri Lankan pattern.

“The Perth Hindu Temple is thus an absolutely unique structure with no other temple in the world with similar characteristics,” they said.



Perth Hindu Temple home page

The International Federation of Tamils (IFT), wishes to express, on behalf of the Tamil Diaspora, its shock and exasperation at the lopsided EU statement on “Terrorism in Sri Lanka,” issued on 26.09.05 condemning the LTTE.

The IFT wishes to point out to the EU, the plausible damage the “European Union Declaration condemning terrorism in Sri Lanka (26/09/05),” could bring to the peace process at a time when the extreme Sinhala nationalist terrorism is rearing its fierce head again in the southern parts of Sri Lanka.

With the Presidential election propaganda machinary at its full swing, the extreme nationalist Sinhala elements rallying behind the Presidential candidate, Mahinda Rajapakse are clamouring for the abrogation of Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) facilitated by Norway and the P-TOMS, recommended by the Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference.

From the Election Propaganda platforms these elements are making loud appeal to the outside world to ban the LTTE in all countries. With their anti-Tamil slogans, they are also urging the Sri Lankan armed forces to resume war against the LTTE.

Now, they are going to misconstrue the EU Declaration as a vicarious moral support for their purported genocidal attempt. We wish to point out to the European Community that the EU Declaration may retard the peace process as well.

When Member States of the European Union gave asylum to Tamils two decades ago, it was in recognition of the fact that the Tamils faced annihilation in a genocidal rage of the extreme nationalist elements in Sri Lanka. The IFT fears the recent EU Declaration, inadvertantly, is going to encourage a similar rage which is in the brewing.

The Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) was forged between the Government of Sri Lanka acting on behalf of the Sinhala nation and the LTTE representing the Tamil nation and the Peace Talks were also held on the same equal basis. The international community, too, recognised and supported this understanding.

The decision not to receive any LTTE delegations into any of the EU Member States denies the Tamil people and the LTTE a chance to present, face to face, their case, predicaments and proposals to the EU countries. It also denies them of the chance to continue gaining firsthand information and values of the well established democratic institutions functioning in the West.

At a time when there are too many political killings taking place in Sri Lanka, it is unfair and unacceptable to arbitrarily choose one party to the peace talks and penalise it.

On behalf of the Tamil people, the IFT pleads with each Member State of the European Union to refrain from taking any punitive action against the LTTE, as it will affect all Tamils, both at home, as well as in Europe, and will obviously jeopaordise the success of the peace process, also.

The IFT pleads for restraint and understanding.

The two main contenders in Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections stepped up their campaigns this week amid continuing speculation about plans by the incumbent, Chandrika Kumaratunga, to dissolve parliament due to a rift with her party’s candidate.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) launched the manifesto of its candidate, Ranil Wickremesinghe, this week while his main rival, Premier Mahinda Rajapakse of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), was forced on the defensive by continuing media speculation of a rift within his party.

Sri Lanka’s independent media has been giving considerable coverage, albeit speculatively, to a rift between Rajapakse and Kumaratunga, who returned Tuesday from three weeks in the United States where she had earlier attended a United Nations summit.

Reacting furiously to a recent story in the independent Daily Mirror newspaper, Rajapakse’s campaign manager, Mangala Samaraweera, insisted that President Kumaratunga had no reason or plan to dissolve parliament before the presidential poll.

Alleging there as a UNP plot to make out that there was a battle raging within the SLFP with the President at loggerheads with the Premier’s, Samaraweera rubbished the newspaper, pointing out it was owned by relations of Mr. Wickremesinghe.

“I say with responsibility that [President Kumaratunga] has no such intention [of dissolving Parliament] and is committed to ensuring [Mr. Rajapakse’s] victory,” he said.

He said the rumors were aimed at mobilising the UNP’s own district organisers who were not taking an active part in the presidential campaign, because they were sure of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s defeat at the November 17 poll.

For its part, the UNP launched its own manifesto, aimed its policies squarely at Mr. Rajapske’s core supporters: the rural poor and Sinhala nationalists.

Although Mr. Rajapakse’s own manifesto will not be published for another week, his alliances with the ultra-nationalist JVP (People’s Liberation Front) and the hardline monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have produce a platform that is stridently Sinhala nationalist and weighted towards the rural poor.

This week the UNP pledged a raft of subsidies and vowed to ‘defeat separatism’ if Mr. Wickremesinghe were elected.

The UNP promised to reduce the price of essential food items, including milk powder, and provide fertilizer subsidies and price guarantees to farmers

About a quarter of the island’s population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank and more than 80 percent of the 19 million people live in the countryside.

The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), under Kumaratunga’s leadership, toppled Wickremesinghe’s UNP-led coalition in April 2004 when voters backed her party’s pledge to lift rural incomes and rejected his success in brokering a cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers.

Sri Lankan stocks rose Wednesday at the Colombo Bourse as local and foreign investors, confident of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s pledges, bought shares across the board.

Rajapakse’s camp meanwhile said it would provide a good pension scheme, grant medical, transport and other benefits to pensioners, ensure housing programmes for public servants are doubled and a clear policy to improve public sector service conditions.

Describing Mr. Wickremesinghe’s manifesto as a “sack of promises”, Mr. Samaraweera said the UNP had sung a different tune about its policies at every election since 1999.

The LTTE does not plan to rally the minority Tamil community for or against either Sinhala candidate.

“Both have victory as their objective and want to use the conflict of the Tamil people for their advantage - one wants to bash Tamils and get the (majority) Sinhala vote while the other wants to be seen as a moderate and win the minority vote,” LTTE Political Wing head, Mr. S. P. Thamilselvan told Reuters.

The Sri Lankan government has neveretheless requested the elections chief to establish cluster polling booths in Army-controlled areas for the presidential polls to be held in all parts of the north and the east.

In the past when clustered booths have been set up for people in LTTE-controlled areas to cross over the frontlines to vote, the Army has closed routes, denying thousands access.

Despite the UNP’s concession to Sinhala nationalist concerns about defeating terrorism, the JVP was swift to denounce the manifesto, saying it “is prepared in favor of separatism.”

JVP propaganda secretary Wimal Weerawansa accused Wickremesinghe of being vague in his policy and of aiming to grant an interim administration to the LTTE, fulfilling Tiger aspirations for a separate state in the north and east of the island.

The JVP is meanwhile under fire for comments its leader, Somawansa Amerasinghe, is said to have made at Rajapakse’s campaign launch last week.

He reportedly declared that the Sri Lankan security forces should be disbanded if they fail to protect Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity.

A group of former heads of Sri Lankan armed forces are denouncing the JVP, saying its leader’s remark was an insult to those who were killed and made disabled “while saving the motherland” in two decades of civil war.

UNP to 'defeat separatism' [September 28, 2005]

Tamil residents and public servants in the Jaffna peninsula are making last minute preparations for a fourth Tamil resurgence convention to be held on Friday. Preparations are going ahead despite threats by the Sri Lankan security forces, who occupy most of the peninsula, against organizers and the public.

Several hundred pre-school teachers from Teachers Technical Colleges across Jaffna district met at the Thileepan Memorial near Nallur Kandaswamy temple last week to make village level plans for the forthcoming Tamil Resurgence Celebrations in Jaffna.

Earlier in the week, many other women, mostly from camps for the internally displaced across the Jaffna district, volunteered to assist with the organization of the event. More than a thousand women and female students attended a briefing by organizers at the Jaffna University Kailasapathy Auditorium. Committees including undergrads formed in the event Sunday began their village-level awareness campaign to promote the Jaffna Tamil Resurgence Convention.

The Sri Lankan military has stepped up the harassment of those it suspects to be involved in organizing the next Tamil resurgence event. SLA soldiers have also intensified armed patrols in the parts of the peninsula under military control.

On Monday, students from Jaffna Technical College on their way to publicize forthcoming Tamil Resurgence event were barred from entering Mandaitivu by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers. Even after intervention by international ceasefire monitors and Tamil parliamentarians, the students were not allowed entry.

Last week, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arrested a student organizer traveling through a military checkpoint. He was released after other students and members of the public protested over the arrest and a Tamil parliamentarian complained to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) over the “intimidating tactics” of the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna. The soldiers warned the student not to participate in the forthcoming Tamil Resurgence rally.

“The success of the Tamil Resurgence Rallies in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Kilinochi and Mullaithivu has alarmed Colombo, and that is why I think SLA has intensified its intimidating tactics to sabotage the forthcoming rally," parliamentarian Selvarajah Gajendran said.

The hostility by Sri Lanka’s armed forces comes in the wake of a series of successful Tamil resurgence events in other parts of the North-East.

The Sunday Times’ respected Defence Column said the evening Jaffna is focused to deliver a strong message to the international community and Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-dominated south. It points out that the rallies are taking place against “a backdrop of a protracted delay in peace talks, the non implementation of P-TOMS (Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure), demands for troop withdrawals from High Security Zones.”

Earlier this month tens of thousands of residents attended a similar resurgence event in Mullaitivu. The attendants appealed to the international community to recognize their right to greater autonomy from Colombo. “Extend your moral support achieve self rule with just peace and dignity in our traditional homeland. Help us to live in our homeland with Self Rule in peace with the Sinhala South,” the Mullaitivu declaration said.

Attendees at earlier resurgence events held in Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Kilinochchi have made similar appeals. Friday’s event is expected to be one of the largest such rallies.

Compiled from TamilNet and local press reports

Thousands of people across Sri Lanka’s Northeast and the Tamil Diaspora have been commemorating the fast-unto-death of Lt. Col. Thileepan, who died trying to get the Indian government to honour the security undertakings it gave to the Tamil people alongside its 1987 pact with Sri Lanka.

Rememberance events were held last week in major towns across the Tamil-dominated Northeast in honour of the Liberation Tigers’ of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander who died on September 26, 1987 during a hunger protest which failed to move the government of Rajiv Gandhi to act.

On Monday thousands of people attended the final day of commemoration events held at the Palugamam Throupathy Amman Kovil grounds in Batticaloa. A new hospital named after Thileepan was also opened in Tharavai the same day. In Ampara district a commemoration event was held at the Kanjikudicharu.

In the northern Vanni, thousands of people congregated at the Murugan temple, Kilinochchi, for a commemoration rally in memory of Thileepan who died after 12 days without food or fluids. The commemorative events began twelve days earlier to coincide with the anniversary of the first day of Thileepan’s hunger-strike.

A march in Kilinochchi reached the Regional Administrative office where the Government Agent (the region’s most senior civil servant) received the people participating in the day’s token hunger-strike.

In the Jaffna peninsula the final day events of Thileepan’s commemoration started at the site of Thileepan’s monument, in the compound of the famours Nallur Kandaswamy Temple. Before the events began, students and community activists put up posters and decorated the site.

Eighteen years ago, an estimated hundred thousand people gathered in and around the Nallur Kandaswamy temple to support Thileepan in his hunger strike which he began on 15 September 1987 on a stage in front of the historic temple.

Thileepan, then the LTTE’s political wing leader for the Jaffna district, made five demands from the Indian government, including the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonization of Tamil lands, an end to the building of new Sri Lankan military camps in the Tamil areas, the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan security forces from Tamil schools and the disarming of Sinhala and Muslim paramilitary militia.

As Jaffna’s political wing leader, Thileepan was a popular figure in the Tamil community and had already won renown for his courage in combat. The LTTE has named a series of medical centers, located both in government and LTTE-held areas, after him.

Born Rasiah Partheepan, in 1964 as the fourth son of a school teacher in Urelu, in a hamlet of Urumpirai in the Jaffna District, he took up the name Thileepan when he joined the LTTE.

His motivation for joining the Tamil freedom struggle was prompted at the age of ten by the deaths of ten youths in a violent assault by Sinhala policemen on the World Tamil Research Conference held in Jaffna in 1974.

Compiled from TamilNet and local press reports

Tamil community groups in Trincomalee have called upon the Tamil speaking people of the Northeast to boycott Sri Lanka’s state-owned banks, alleging the institutions are discriminating against the island’s minorities.

Of the 1350 youths recruited by the Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank recently, only 66 have been posted to northeast province. Of these, all except six, are Sinhalese youths residing in the southern provinces and are not from the northeast province, the community groups said.

The Tamil civic groups protesting the biased recruitment policy say it is further evidence of the institutionalized racism within the Sri Lankan state. They point out that the language barrier precludes these youth from handling the affairs of the majority public of the Northeast.

Tamil parliamentarians have raised the matter with the outgoing Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Kumaratunga. Mr. R. Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group - and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian - has faxed a written protest to her.

He has called for the cancellation of all appointments made by the State Banks, Bank of Ceylon (BoC) and Peoples Bank (PB) to their branches in the Northeast or the recall of the new appointees.

“This is a repetition of the regular discrimination that has been consistently practised against the Tamils in the matter of employment in the state sector including State Banks,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s minority communities complain of consistent discrimination against them by the state – discrimination which is at the root of the protracted civil war. As Mr. Sampanthan in his letter pointed out to the President, “you cannot be unaware that this is one of the factors that has substantially contributed to the alienation of Tamil youths from the Sri Lankan State and to the demand for self-rule.”

The state bureaucracy is dominated by the majority Sinhalese. Discrimination within state structures was also highlighted earlier this year during the post-Tsunami aid relief efforts, when low-level government bureaucrats were blamed for thwarting international aid from the Northeast by underplaying the destruction there and on occasion, even redirecting supplies destined for the Tamil areas to Sinhala dominated areas in the island’s south.

Last week, yet another Tamil language training programme was announced for the predominantly Sinhala police force.

“The majority of the people in the Trincomalee district are Tamil speaking. The police serving in the district should learn Tamil language to promote better understanding with Tamil speaking people and to discharge their duties effectively,” said Mr. Raja Collure, Chairman of the Official Languages Commission of Sri Lanka, when inaugurating the course.

“Of about 64 thousand police personnel currently serving in Sri Lanka, about 17 thousand have been posted to the northeast province. There are very few Tamils in the police service,” he said, lamenting that Tamils are not willing to join the police service.

Compiled from TamilNet and local press reports

Presidential hopeful Ranil Wickremesinghe this week launched a determined bid to close on his opponent, Premier Mahinda Rajapakse, with a manifesto that sought to shift the debate to the economy from the ethnic question, whilst at the same time making overtures to Sinhala nationalists.

To begin with, in a major policy shift to target the masses who voted his government out in 2004, he pledged a raft of subsidies if elected. He also vowed to vowed to end separatism, an unambiguous interpretation of Sri Lanka’s conflict that would appeal to Sinhala nationalists.

Launching his manifesto at the headquarters of his United National Party (UNP), Mr. Wickremesinghe, accompanied by senior party officials, paid homage to senior Buddhist prelates, seeking their blessings.

The first section of his two part manifesto deals with three themes: an end to hunger, employment suited for qualifications, and end to separatism. The second section deals with twenty areas ranging from tsunami reconstruction to women’s rights and foreign affairs.

Whilst Mr. Rajapakse, candidate for the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), has taken a stridently Sinhala-Buddhist line, forging alliances with the ultra-nationalist JVP (People’s Liberation Front) and the hardline monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Mr. Wickremesinghe has not taken a clear stance on the ethnic question till now.

Tellingly, the section that outlines the UNP’s plans to resolve the protracted conflict is titled ‘Defeat to Separatism’ and calls for a common Sinhala front.

Although in vowing to bring about a political solution “based on united Sri Lanka” – a step back from his rival’s vow to protect the “unitary character of the state” - Mr. Wickremesinghe claimed “a consensus” between his opposition UNP and the SLFP-led ruling coalition on the ethnic problem.

This consensus, along with the Oslo Declaration (a media term for the agreement between the then UNP government and the LTTE to explore federalism as a solution) and the Tokyo Declaration (a roadmap for peace and disarmament agreed by Sri Lanka and international donors in the absence of the LTTE) had “created the framework of a solution acceptable to all communities of the country,” the manifesto says.

In a clear invitation to the island’s Muslim voters, the UNP said “while guaranteeing Muslim representation in the peace talks, we will also ensure that at all times, the views of the Muslim community are taken into consideration.”

He also dangled a coveted ambition of Sri Lanka’s impoverished plantation workers – access to higher education and government jobs. “We will increase the opportunities for the children of estate workers to enter higher education institutes [and] employment opportunities in government sector for the estate community.”

The largest Estate Tamil political party, the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) is as yet wavering on pledging its support, as is the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the island’s largest Muslim party before an internal rebellion.

Whilst Mr. Rajapakse has embraced a strong Sinhala-Buddhist position, Wickremesinghe is wary of alienating the island’s minorities whilst pursing the Sinhala-nationalist middle ground.

Mr. Rajapakse, whose left-wing SLFP – like the JVP - has its core support amongst the rural poor, is also taking a strong stance on the creaking economy.

Taking advantage of widespread belief that Sri Lanka’s soaring cost of living is a consequence of foreign exploitation, the Premier has vowed to resist further privatization and to extend financial assistance to the rural poor.

In response Mr. Wickremesinghe, the right-of-centre market favourite, has adopted an unabashedly populist economic manifesto.

Banking on foreign investment more than tripling to $1 billion a year to meet his growth target, Wickremesinghe shifted his policy focus from a peace bid with the Tamil Tigers to the economy and the common man.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said the economy came first, Reuters reported from his press conference.

“People want answers to this,” he said, adding that while peace was an issue, “I think people are also talking about their stomach.”

He vowed to spend $50 million next year to keep down prices of goods ranging from milk powder to fertiliser, pledging to create 3 million jobs and double economic growth to 10 percent a year for a decade.

Stealing some of Mr. Rajapakse’s thunder, Mr. Wickremesinghe promised to revitalise the rural economy and guarantee paddy and milk prices for farmers.

He said he would raise the funds to pay for the subsidies from treasury coffers and from foreign aid pledged for tsunami recovery relief and for wider redevelopment projects.

He pledged a new poverty alleviation scheme would provide food stamps for the destitute and vowed to upgrade a thousand rural schools to the level of affluent city schools within three years.

He also pledged to abandon a coastal buffer zone imposed by outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the wake of December’s tsunami, and promised to rebuild homes for hundreds of thousands of displaced within months.

“It is a more people-friendly manifesto than a broad economic-friendly manifesto, but definitely the economic sense is there and the targets seem to be not impossible but challenging,” Hasitha Premaratne, head of research at HNB Stockbrokers Pvt in Colombo, told Reuters.

The Daily Mirror quoted him as saying he would do away with glittering emblems associated with the office of President if elected.

“I would make the President a servant of the people and no one needs to call me Your Excellency. Anyone can call me Mister or plain Ranil.”