Sri Lanka

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  • India ruling congress hit by southern troubles

    Mar 03
    One of the Indian government's key southern allies is struggling, only weeks before a general election, posing a potential problem for the Congress party as it seeks to retain power and build a stable post-poll coalition.
     
    With 39 parliamentary seats, Tamil Nadu is a big prize in the general election, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party swept the state in 2004, becoming a key partner in the national coalition government led by Congress.
     
    This time around, things are unlikely to go so well for the DMK as the party is hit by Tamil protests over the war in Sri Lanka and an economic slowdown hitting the state's export sector.
     
    In a sign of the DMK's troubles, its principal rival in the state is trying to supplant it as the main ally of Congress.
     
    This week, Jayalalithaa, a former film actress and now head of the state opposition party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), called on Congress to dump the DMK.
     
    Her approach highlights growing confidence that her party, nearly wiped out in 2004, will fare much better than the DMK in this year's election.
    "Her statement is a sign that things won't go as well for Congress this time," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
     
    Jayalalithaa has shied away from renewing a previous alliance with the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has not fully recovered from its 2004 national election defeat.
     
    That might give Congress a confidence boost.
     
    But a more even split in the Tamil Nadu vote this time around -- after the 2004 landslide in the state -- means Congress would have fewer parliamentary seats to count on from Tamil Nadu when it comes to
    cobbling together a coalition.
     
    Tamil Nadu has been racked by protests by Tamils who believe the government should do more to help their counterparts caught up in the crossfire between the military and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. DMK lawmakers recently walked out of the national parliament to protest against the government's lack of action.
     
    An economic slowdown that has hit the state's export sector may also have dented support for the incumbent DMK.
     
    Jayalalithaa's strategy is the latest example of electoral politics being played out across India's 29 states, where regional parties are deciding whether to support Congress or the BJP.
     
    In Maharashtra, the BJP is reported to be reaching out to a regional party that is part of the ruling Congress coalition. The state counts for 48 seats out of India's 543 seats in parliament.
     
    The outcome of those coalition games will decide the fate of the general election.
     
    Congress won the 2004 election as much on its capacity to build a strong coalition of regional parties as the swing in votes against the incumbent BJP. 
  • Man sets himself on fire in the UK, Self immolation death toll hits 8 in Tamil Nadu.
    A Tamil man set himself on fire outside Britain's Parliament was taken to a hospital with superficial burns, according to British authorities said.
     
    British Police said the man was on fire "for a short time" in Parliament Square in the heart of London on Friday February 27, without saying specifically that the man attempted self-immolation.
     
    A police spokesman said the man's burns were superficial and "certainly not critical."
     
    There was no immediate word on who the man was or why he would set himself on fire. But it follows an attempt at self-immolation by another outside the residence of the British prime Minister on February 14. The man was arrested before he could set himself ablaze.
     
    Meanwhile, the number of deaths in Tamil Nadu from self immolation over the Eelam Tamils issue hit 8 with the death of DMDK supporter Seenivasan from Vellor.
     
    Seenivasan who set himself on fire, on February 26, protesting Indian government’s support for the Sri Lankan state was admitted to hospital and succumbed to his injuries on March 2.
  • Tamil Nadu parties call for UN and US intervention
    The Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, an umbrella organisation of outfits like PMK, MDMK, VCK, CPI and the Tamil Nationalist Movement, has launched campaign to collect 20 million signatures for a petition calling to save Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    Signatures collected from across the State will be submitted to the United Nations Secretary General, Presidents of the United States and Russia.
     
    Political analysts said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement has decided to appeal to the UN and the US, as the Congress led Indian government did not have any leverage over Sri Lanka and was indifferent to the Tamils plight.
     
    Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko, State secretary of the Communist Party of India D. Pandian and senior CPI leader R. Nallakannu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi president Thol. Tirumavalavan, who are members of the movement, signed the memorandum on behalf of their parties.
     
    Vaiko speaking to reporters said the campaign called for immediate UN intervention to save the Sri Lankan Tamils, “who are facing annihilation at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army.”
     
    Ramadoss said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement was not setup to destabilise State government and the movement’s only aim was to protect the Tamils across the Palk straits. He further added that if there was any threat to the government of Karunanithi, the PMK would come to its rescue.
     
    Pandian said the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement would decide the next phase of the agitation in Madurai on March 3 following a public meeting.
     
    Pandian also criticised the state authorities’ actions aimed at denying permission for a State-wide demonstration and called it an attempt by the government to stifle democratic rights of political parties.
     
    The Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Movement, in a memorandum submitted to the US Consulate general in Chennai, asked the US to take all diplomatic measures to ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

    The Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Movement is organising a series of rallies including one at Madurai on February 24, at Tiruchirapalli on February 28 and on March two at Tuticorin, demanding ceasefire.
     
    Meanwhile, Vaiko, the General Secretary of MDMK courted arrest with 300 other activists for waging black flags in protest against Mr. Mukherjee, who was on a visit to Tutucorin.
     
    Following the arrest of Vaiko, Karunanidhi warned that his government will not hesitate to invoke the National Security Act against the MDMK leader. 
  • Self-sacrifice for the greater good has a long tradition
    Tamils across the globe have engaged in acts of fasting, marches, sit-ins and formed human chains to voice their opposition to Sri Lanka’s genocidal war and demonstrate their solidarity with the suffering of Eelam Tamils. Acts of self immolation, in the midst of these other protests from the standard repertoire of modern politics, may at first sight appear fanatical and imbued with a certain irrational excess.
     
    However, these acts are not as exceptional and unusual as the might at first appear and have a resonance with iconic acts of protest from the twentieth century as well as Tamil cultural understandings.
     
    Critical to understanding the meaning of self immolation as political protest and the resonance it appears to have amongst the wider Tamil anti genocide movement are the notions of voluntary suffering and a willingness to sacrifice for a higher ideal or for the greater good of the whole.
     
    The political activism of Monhandas K. Gandhi, popularly known across south Asia as Mahatma Gandhi, exemplifies the relationship between political protest against oppression and injustice and THE voluntary acceptance of suffering as a form of self sacrifice for a wider good.
     
    Gandhi’s practise of non violence can be seen as incorporating two important conceptual elements. Firstly the idea of ahimsa – of doing no harm – which stems from an appreciation of the equal moral value of the other. The second important element is the voluntary acceptance of suffering by the protestor as a means of appealing to the conscience of the oppressor without harming him / her.
     
    When Congress activists willingly and without resistance accepted the blows of the colonial police, they were trying to demonstrate to colonial officials, the Indian public and the British public the injustices of British colonial rule in India.
     
    This tactic was used with great effect by Gandhi in 1930 during the famous salt march when he walked along with volunteers to the sea at Dandi and publicly performed the then illegal act of making salt. Before setting off on the march, Gandhi informed the Viceroy, Irwin of his intentions and noted that he would be courting arrest in breaking British laws.
     
    Through accepting the punishment of breaking an unjust law, Gandhi and the many thousands of volunteers who followed his example hoped to demonstrate the oppression and violence contained in the British monopoly on the production and distribution of salt.
     
    In this and other similar acts of fasting or the self conscious courting of police repression and violence, Gandhi and anti colonial activists willingly accepted suffering not for personal gain but in order to promote a wider good, that is the possibility of Indian self rule.
     
    The acts of political protest, often communicated through what have become iconic images of Gandhi fasting and unarmed protestors beaten down by police charges had a strong resonance with the mainly rural and illiterate population of India. The voluntary acceptance of suffering and self sacrifice has long been part of a tradition of exemplary protest that is also included in day to day practices.
     
    In the Tamil speaking areas the earliest forms of literature from Sangham corpus describes many such acts of exemplary protest. The later Saivite literature also recounts tales of devotees who willingly undertake acts of suffering to prove their faith.
     
    The intertwining of non violence and exemplary suffering is also apparent in many day to day forms of social interaction in south Asian cultures. These acts are particularly associated with women who often deploy non violent forms of protest within a domestic context as a means of appealing to the conscience of those who have transgressed norms.
     
    A classic incident in the lives of many south Asian families is that of a woman who protests the wrongful behaviour of a partner or child by refusing to eat. The logic of these incidents, which are now regularly portrayed in television dramas and the cinema, involves the woman willingly accepting the suffering of hunger as a means of appealing to the conscience of those who have transgressed familial norms and expectations.
     
    Whilst the south Asian cultural landscape made it especially receptive to the Gandhian message, the twentieth century is littered with iconic acts of political protest through exemplary suffering from many different parts of the world.
     
    During the Vietnam War there were several acts of self immolation by Buddhist monks and nuns protesting the United States’ massively destructive military campaign in Vietnam.
     
    These acts of public and violent self sacrifice appealed to the moral conscience of the United States population and the wider world by demonstrating in an urgent way the suffering caused by the United States’ actions in Vietnam.
     
    Similarly in 1913, the Oxford educated Suffragette Emily Wilding Davidson threw herself under the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby to protest the British establishment’s refusal to grant women the right to vote. As she ran onto the racecourse facing certain injury and probable death she was heard to shout ‘votes for women’ - a demand that was known to be resolutely opposed by the king.
     
    Acts of exemplary suffering have an important place in the Tamil struggle as means of resisting the Sri Lankan state’s genocidal programme. During the ill-fated Indian occupation of the Tamil speaking areas Thileepan and Annai Poopathi undertook fasts unto death as a means of provoking the conscience of the Indian establishment and drawing attention to the suffering of the Tamil speaking people.
     
    The most recent acts of self immolation have taken place in a period of exceptional suffering for the Eelam Tamils. Although Sri Lanka’s genocidal programme has deep mythical roots and a contemporary history that begins with political independence in 1949, it is only in the last few months that the state has pursued the annihilation of the Tamils with such public abandon.
     
    In the aftermath of the anti Tamil pogroms that took place between 1977 and 1983, Eelam Tamils abandoned their attempts to engage the Sri Lankan state and directed their protests to the international community, the west and India in particular. The Tamils no longer regard the Sri Lankan state as a moral interlocutor with whom dialogue is possible and their efforts are now solely directed at the conscience of outside powers.
     
    The global Tamil anti genocide movement has placed the moral imperative of responding to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni firmly on the shoulders of the international community. The intensity and momentum of the protests reflect the crisis that is now facing the Eelam Tamils and these acts of self immolation are intended capture the moral urgency of the situation in the Vanni.
     
    The leadership of the Tamil resistance has, along with other Tamils, a nuanced response to acts of exemplary suffering as a means of resisting the Sri Lankan state’s genocidal programme. The LTTE, whilst understanding and appreciating these acts for their moral intent, has argued that the Tamil struggle would benefit more from the continued participation of those who feel so acutely the moral imperative to respond to the Tamils’ suffering.
     
    The global Tamil response to the most recent acts of self immolation have taken a similar tone. Whilst these acts are understood as forms of exemplary suffering and self sacrifice undertaken in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Vanni, Tamils echo the LTTE’s argument that the movement as a whole would benefit more from the continued participation of all anti genocide activists.
     
    The Sri Lankan state’s nakedly genocidal campaign in the Vanni has created a unified sense of urgency amongst Tamils across the world. Whilst Tamils cannot distance themselves from the exemplary purposes and sacrificial intent of the recent acts of self immolation, the movement cannot afford to loose the committed and continued participation of any activist who feels the imperative of making the world listen. 
  • Why everyone should boycott Sri Lanka
    The United Nations Agreement on Human Rights states, amongst other things, that individuals have the “right to life”, “the right to equality before the law” and “the freedom of assembly and association”.
    The United Nations Agreement on Human Rights forbids, amongst other things, “torture and inhumane degrading treatment”, “arbitrary arrest and detention” and “hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or language”.
    Sri Lanka, however, being one of the 192 countries of the United Nations, has broken its agreement to abide by the Geneva Convention, by mercilessly launching a massive military campaign to exterminate every Tamil in Sri Lanka, for one reason and one reason only; they are Tamil.
    Since the start of 2009, more than 3000 Tamils, most of who are innocent civilians, have been executed. All the hospitals in the areas of conflict have been fired upon, several times, destroying them and killing already wounded patients who went to seek medical help, as well as doctors and nurses. The small number of surviving doctors living amongst the civilians have set up make-shift hospitals in schools, temples and churches, but without adequate medical facilities.
    The Sri Lankan government is doing everything in its power to thin down the Tamil population, including refusing the access of medical aid and food into the war zones and banning international aid groups, such as the ICRC, from providing essential care to the injured and dying Tamils.
    As the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka continues to escalate, we cannot just sit by as Tamils of the international community and watch our brothers and sisters back at home being butchered on a daily basis.
    As British Tamils, we have a duty to do all we can to stop the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka and to save our people. After attempting many different strategies to bring an end to this horrific war with little success, international Tamils have decided to chance their tactics and launch an attack on the Sri Lankan economy.
    Each Sri Lankan product that is purchased contributes towards financing the arms and ammunitions that are being used to slay our Tamil people back at home. As Tamils, by buying these products, we are contributing towards the complete annihilation of our own people.
    Consequently, to cause a downturn in the Sri Lankan economy, all Sri Lankan products must be boycotted for the next 100 days. Listed below are a few products which must be avoided:
    1. Food items by Larich, Maliban and Nestle milk products
    2. Food items that are imported by Sri Lankan Tamils and packed in Britain.
    3. Garments made in Sri Lankan and sold in supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer and footwear including Bata
    4. Products made from rubber and coconut
    5. All forms of tea grown in Ceylon.
    6. Medicinal products
    7. Fish, fish products and vegetables
    Investors are also being requested to stop purchasing bonds, treasury bills and shares in corporations as well as saving their earnings in Sri Lankan banks. This will directly affect the foreign reserve that the Sri Lankan government uses to by weapons from other countries in its genocidal war on Tamils.
    Before buying any product, consumers are advised to ask the retailer if the product is from Sri Lanka. If it is, buying it is not only costing the consumer money, but is also costing Tamil lives.
    Many retailers are willing to cooperate but are asking for the consumers to conduct the boycott, and then they too will stop buying Sri Lankan products. We appeal to the few importers of Sri Lankan products to the UK to give this matter their urgent consideration and seek alternative sources of similar products in South Asia.
    This appeal, if successful, could bring down the Sri Lankan economy and salvage thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
    Every Sri Lankan product that is bought by each individual consumer is serving to help the Singhalese to defeat the Tamils so every British Tamil must make these diminutive sacrifices to pressurise the Sri Lankan government to stop the war.
    Let us all work together as a community, the Tamil community, to ensure that soon, very soon, our people back at home can live with the serenity, self - respect and equality that they deserve.
  • UN nods ‘fight to the finish’
    The position taken by UN Security Council Friday, February 27, indicating no go beyond ‘hearing’, and the considerate briefing of John Holmes largely endorsing and trusting Colombo’s agenda and assurances for civilians, are read between the lines by international political observers as a ‘knowing wink’ at Colombo to pursue its offensive.
     
    Alternatively, the UN stance either paves way for intervention by interested powers outside of the UN or perhaps reveals an actuality that the UN can be shaken not when people face genocide, but only when ground realities endanger the Sri Lankan state, observers said.
     
    While the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday, February 24, called for a suspension of fighting and beginning of political discussions, John Holmes, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who briefed the Security Council Friday spoke of tackling underlying political issues only after the end of fighting.
     
    “It appears that the UN Secretariat’s public call is undermined by a more private green light to the Sri Lankan military’s offensive in north Sri Lanka”, reported Inner City Press on Friday.
     
    In British Parliament Wednesday, Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey questioned British Foreign Secretary David Miliband why Britain’s representative in UN earlier failed to support a briefing on Sri Lanka while ministers in London call for ceasefire.
     
    Miliband replied: “I am sorry to hear the hon. Gentleman talk in that way, because he knows that a failed resolution—one that faces a veto—is worse than no resolution at all, and it would strengthen precisely the forces that he and I oppose. I can assure him that our diplomats, whether in New York or in the region, are all working off the same script, which is one that has been set by the Prime Minister and me.”
     
    The British silence at UN on Friday may mean that the UN Security Council is still not seasoned to consider the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    At the beginning of the UN briefing Russia said that it is only a ‘one-time hearing’.
     
    The permanent representative of US was not present during the briefing.
     
    The British representative at UN, John Sawers, who earlier said that the LTTE’s long ‘blighting’ of Colombo should be brought to an end, neither demanded a presidential statement of the council after the briefing nor answered questions put on Sri Lanka by the media, according to Inner City Press.
     
    Interestingly, John Holmes admitted his ‘knowing’ stance on events.
     
    When asked by Inner City Press on reportedly mischievous translations he received while visiting civilians in Vavuniyaa, he replied, “you should credit me with enough intelligence to assess what people told me, surrounded by the military’s armed guards”.
  • … May Need Bailout as debt drains reserves
    Sri Lanka may need a bailout from international donors to help pay its debts as the island’s 26- year civil war draws to a close.
     
    Since August, the South Asian nation has spent half its foreign reserves, now $1.7 billion, on supporting its currency, paying debt and buying imports. That doesn’t leave much after the government shells out another $900 million due in 2009. The reserves aren’t getting replenished as the ailing world economy pummels exports and overseas investors flee emerging markets.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is unwilling to turn to the International Monetary Fund, which requires austerity measures in return for loans. Securing financing from other countries may be challenging for a nation whose credit rating from Standard & Poor’s is the lowest apart from those of Bolivia, Pakistan, Grenada, Argentina and Lebanon. Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on Sri Lanka today.
     
    “Sri Lankan authorities have to act fast to beef up the country’s reserves,” said Ashok Parameswaran, senior emerging markets analyst at Invesco Inc. in New York. “Otherwise, they may have to devalue their currency significantly.”
     
    Since December, countries including Russia, Vietnam and Kazakhstan have weakened their currencies rather than use reserves to prop them up. That has made imports costlier, reducing demand for goods from overseas.
     
    Neighbouring Currencies
    Sri Lanka kept its exchange rate at about 108 rupees per dollar between January and October 2008 to slow inflation, even as the currencies of neighbouring India and Pakistan weakened. The Sri Lankan rupee has since dropped to 114.95.
     
    “Sri Lanka has relaxed the rupee in stops and starts, but they need a controlled devaluation,” said Agost Benard, a Singapore-based sovereign analyst at S&P. “The implicit currency peg will have to change and that’s one of the long-term solutions to the nation’s foreign-exchange problems.”
     
    S&P cut Sri Lanka’s rating by one level in December to B, five steps below investment grade. Fitch Ratings lowered the nation’s rating outlook to negative from stable because of “heightened concern” over a “marked” decline in the nation’s reserves. It affirmed Sri Lanka’s rating at B+, which is four levels below investment grade and unchanged since April 2008.
     
    Sri Lanka is banking on currency swaps with central banks, sales of treasury bills and bonds and offering higher interest rates on deposits to citizens living abroad to boost reserves.
    Tamil Tigers
     
    Once the northern region of the country is recovered from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, peace will lead to more remittances and aid for construction of houses, schools and hospitals, said P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, chief economist at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This will provide “some balance of payments support,” he said.
     
    The Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate homeland, have retreated from most of the northern part of the island nation. They now control a pocket of only 87 square kilometers (34 square miles) in the Mullaitheevu region in the northeast, the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry said Feb. 22.
     
    John Keells Holdings Plc, Sri Lanka’s biggest diversified company, last week doubled its stake in Union Assurance Plc, a local insurer, to 74 percent. The company said it’s anticipating that the liberation of Tamil Tigers-occupied territories will spur demand for finance and insurance.
    To be sure, the dispute hasn’t ended yet.
     
    “Although there is the possibility of outright military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, a potentially different style and lower-intensity conflict will continue to pose a risk to growth prospects and public finances,” S&P’s Benard said.
     
    Still Raiding
    Tamil Tigers launched an air raid in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Feb. 20. Their two aircraft were shot down, one crashing into a building housing the Inland Revenue Department and the second north of the city.
     
    Sri Lankan police yesterday arrested a Tamil newspaper editor in connection with the air raid, prompting a protest by media rights group Reporters Without Borders.
     
    At the end of November, Sri Lanka had 1.4 trillion rupees ($12 billion) of foreign debt outstanding. Its total debt is 3.4 trillion rupees, or 75 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to S&P.
     
    Liabilities increased as Sri Lanka, which spends a fifth of its annual budget on defense, borrowed from local and foreign sources to build roads and ports, among other spending. The nation’s budget deficit has averaged 8.7 percent of GDP in the past decade.
     
    Debt ‘Distress’
    Sri Lanka must reduce reliance on dollar-denominated short- term commercial borrowings to ease public debt “distress,” the IMF said in October. It called on the government to weaken the rupee as part of a “comprehensive policy package that would underpin confidence in the currency.”
     
    The central bank said Jan. 19 that it will neither let the currency fall nor approach the IMF for a bailout to pay for imports and repay its debt.
    On Feb. 19 Governor Nivard Cabraal said the central bank received $200 million from Malaysia, declining to reveal the terms of the deal or whether it was a swap or any other facility with Bank Negara Malaysia. Bank Negara didn’t respond to an e- mail sent by Bloomberg News for comment.
     
    “It’s unlikely that Sri Lanka will go to the IMF for funds,” said Dushni Weerakoon, deputy director of the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo. “At whatever cost, they will try to raise small sums from other countries.” 
  • Negative outlook for Sri Lanka…
    Sri Lanka’s credit rating outlook was downgraded to negative following the ‘marked’ decline in the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
     
    Down grading Sri Lanka’s credit rating outlook from stable to negative, Fitch Ratings on Friday February 27, rated Sri Lanka’s long-term foreign currency rating at B+, four levels below investment grade.
     
    Fitch also cited concerns about the stresses in the country's balance of payments, its fiscal deficit and the government's increased reliance on foreign-currency borrowing in recent years.
     
    "Without a sharp contraction in domestic demand to curtail imports, or a significant depreciation of the exchange rate to otherwise correct the trade imbalance, Sri Lanka may not have access to sufficient international funding to cover the current account shortfall and its international debt repayments, resulting in ongoing pressures on official reserves," the rating agency said in an email statement.
     
    Credit rating was not the only economic indicator that projected a bleak outlook for the country. In the same week the rating was downgraded the local currency hit an all time low value and the parliament was told that the country’s outstanding debt is at an all time high.
     
     
    All time low
    Sri Lanka's rupee, which has been steadily losing value in the past few months, hit a new all-time low of 115.75/95 a dollar on Friday February 27 amid import dollar demand from state banks, according to brokers.
     
    "The dollar is sold at 115.75 level and the offer is at 115.95," said a currency broker, who asked not to be named.
     
    Three other dealers confirmed the rate. "State banks are buying dollars for import bills, while one state bank still sells dollar at 114.25."
     
    Record debt
    On Thursday February 19, Sri Lanka’s Revenue minister, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya announced in the parliament that the country’s  total debt in the past 8 years had exceeded Rs. 3,400 billion.
     
    The minister further said that interest costs stemming from local and foreign loans had more than doubled during the same period.
     
    From 2001 to 2008, the country’s total local and foreign debt amounted to Rs. 3,436,837 million and by the end of last year interest costs per year was at a record Rs. 210 billion. An increase of Rs. 16 billion compared to the Rs. 94 billion interest costs in 2001.
     
     
    Presidential confession
    Sri Lankan political leaders who have been claiming that
    President Rajapakase’s Mahinda Chnintana has saved Sri Lanka from the devastation of the global economic meltdown, are now starting to realise the direction the country’s economy is heading.
     
    Rajapaksa speaking at a SAARC meeting last week labelled the financial crisis as a "common challenge to our region and to the world".
     
    "The effects of synchronised slow-down in developed economies, can reach us sooner than later," Rajapaksa cautioned.
     
    Sri Lanka’s economic growth slowed to 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008 from 7 percent in the previous three-month period as declining overseas demand eroded the country’s key exports - tea, rubber and textile.
  • Diaspora Tamils continue protests
    Tamils across the world held demonstrations and rallies highlighting the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and urging the international community to intervene to stop the suffering of their kin and kith back home.
     
    Washington
    Nearly seven thousand U.S. and Canadian Tamils filled the Ellipse at the southern perimeter to the White House on Saturday February 21, as a show of solidarity with the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians undergoing daily aerial bombardment and artillery attacks in Vanni.
     
    The rally, organized jointly by the US-based activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and several local organizations, drew a record crowd, dewarfing the "hurriedly arranged" counter-rally organized by supporters of Colombo, an AFP report said.
     
    A memorandum submitted to the State Department South Asia official demanded:
     
    Publicly condemn the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government.
     
    Ask the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to allow unfettered access for international humanitarian aid agencies and journalists into the conflict zone.
     
    Exert political, economic or other pressure on Sri Lanka for an immediate ceasefire.
     
    Use your goodwill with Sri Lanka’s neighbors to exert pressure on Sri Lanka, and, together with the co-chairs bring about an immediate ceasefire.
     
    Help find a political solution where the Tamil people living in Sri Lanka and exiled in other countries are allowed to determine the terms of coexistence with the Sinhalese state based on the universally accepted principle of self-determination.
     
    Geneva
    More than 15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils from all over Europe gathered in front of the UN office in Geneva in Switzerland Friday, February 20 voicing their demands calling the Sri Lanka government of stop the war on Tamils at once.
     
    The representatives of the Eelam Tamils youth organizations handed a memorandum to the officials of the UN, during the demonstration.
     
    The demonstrators began their march from the park next to Geneva Railway Station bearing placards showing slogans such as, ‘We want Tamil Eelam’, ‘Our Leader is Pirapaharan’ and ‘Sri Lanka Government stop the war!’

    The demonstrators paid their homage to Murukathasan who had immolated himself in front of the UN office in an attempt to draw the attention of the world to the unending sufferings of the Vanni Tamils in the artillery barrage and bombings by the armed forces of Sri Lanka.

    Oslo
    Hundreds of Norwegian Tamils including many youngsters gathered in front of Norwegian parliament Monday, February 23 where they urged Norway government to help bring about a ceasefire immediately to stop the genocide of Tamils in Vanni.
     
    Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), which organized the demonstration in which members of Norway political parties addressed the gathering, submitted a memorandum to Norwegian parliament.
     
    “Sri Lanka government has unleashed a merciless genocidal war on the Tamils creating a humanitarian disaster in Vanni and we are demonstrating here today to stress the need to stop the war on the Tamils immediately,” TYO representatives said.

    Paris
    Thousands of Tamils marched in Paris on Saturday, February 28 to denounce the Sri Lankan government's genocide of the Tamils.
     
    TYP, who organised the march  said over 7000 people came together to protest against Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils..

    The marchers shouted slogans such "EU impose a truce", and "The Sri Lankan president is a murderer", and "Stop the Tamil genocide".
  • The Diaspora as genocide resistors
    Last issue we looked at the continuing failure of the United States, and its diplomatic allies, the co-chairs of the Sri Lankan Peace Process and leading European governments to comply with their obligations to the Tamil people under the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide. In this second part, we look at what ‘Genocide Resistors’ – particularly the Tamil Diaspora – can do to achieve compliance.
    Under the International Criminal Court (ICC) rules there is no time limit (statute of limitations) for prosecution of the particular crime of genocide, so heinous is it.
     
    In 2008 - unlike in 1958, 1977 and 1983 – Europe and North America have significant populations of motivated and politically organised Tamil citizens.
     
    This Diaspora can and must lobby for implementation of their host countries legal obligation to punish the genocides of 1977 and 1983, and the ongoing genocide today.
     
    Further, this legal understanding must form a base for Diaspora activity.
     
    Any mass protest seeking implementation of the UN Convention against genocide is not just entirely lawful: it is a civic duty, for it is a civic duty of citizens to highlight illegalities committed by their government.
     
    The Tamil Diaspora globally must ask the state and federal governments of their countries to recognise the genocide of Eelam Tamils and to abide by their UN treaty obligations to prevent and punish this genocide.
     
    If the Sinhala State is a genocide perpetrator, there are many genocide resistors. These are invariably Diaspora and local Tamil organisations that operate in an atmosphere of harassment, prejudice and even race hate.
     
    But to prevent or intimidate the genocide resistors - Tamil community organisations - from protesting against Tamil genocide is also collusion in the genocide.
     
    So for example given that July’s Ponghu Tamil event had as one objective among others the prevention of genocide of the Tamil people, the attempts by the Sri Lankan embassy and officials of “friendly” governments to obstruct these could constitute collusion.
     
    Blatant forms of collusion in genocide include sales of weaponry, surveillance or other military equipment to a government that is perpetrating genocide, as well as provision of military consultancy.
     
    Collusion includes military agreements that benefit from the proceeds of genocide: for example strategic naval use of the Trincomalee harbour, made possible by the forcible displacement of Tamil civilians, destruction of their lives and habitats.
     
    Collusion includes commercial agreements to benefit from the proceeds of genocide – for example land, access to the sea, oil, titanium and other natural resources acquired or made possible by the killing and forcible displacement of Tamil people from their traditional habitats.
     
    Collusion includes the direct or indirect financing of the perpetrators of genocide. Where aid is provided for “legitimate purposes”, that aid should be monitored so as to ensure it is not being misused. If there is lack of transparency or accountability – the aid should be withheld rather than risk it being used to perpetrate genocide. To fail to monitor such aid, knowing that conditions for genocide exist, is reckless at best, collusion at worst.
     
    With respect to Eelam, we see many international governments engaging in the forms of collusion outlined above: benefiting commercially or militarily from the proceeds of the genocide, for example, and providing weapons, training and advice.
     
    They do so with impunity, because they believe they can get away with it: they expect the Tamil people to be militarily crushed and so do not expect to be called to account.
     
    But the Tamil Diaspora must continue to assume good faith on the part of the international community and to persist with its case for justice.
     
    In addition to the Diaspora’s duty towards the Tamil people, the Diaspora has a civic duty (to their host countries) to ask their governments to comply with the UN convention.
     
    The first step is for the Tamil Diaspora to inform all key decision makers – including and especially the relevant ambassadors, members of parliament, Foreign office and State department officials – that we hold that genocide is taking place.
     
    We must then ask them to agree with us. If they do not, we can ask for reasons and engage in dialogue.
     
    This notification of genocide must be made individually as well as to the relevant department as a group – to each person as well as their department or office – so that people can be held individually accountable.
     
    In summary the Diaspora must first build awareness of genocide – so that international collaborators cannot later say: “I did not know.”
     
    As a first step in notification, one can cite recognition of genocide by individual politicians, specific political parties, the international media and civil society.
     
    Such popular recognition precedes official government recognition.
     
    For example, the Times of London recognised genocide in 1983 saying “"Genocide is a word that must be used with care; but how else is one to describe the impulse which guided the Sinhalese lynch-mobs this week." 
     
    “The Hindu” and numerous Tamil publications in India have taken a similar position in 2009. The Toronto Star ran a headline in January “Tamils protest Genocide”.
     
    Elected Tamil politicians, both in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in India have recognised genocide.
     
    For example, the Hindu recently ran a headline, quoting DMK leader Kanimozhi: “Tamils gradually being wiped out in Sri Lanka”.
     
    There is widespread recognition among the political parties of Tamil Nadu of the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    MDMK leader Vaiko, VCK President Thirumavalan, PMK leader Ramdoss, the Communist Party of India, and many other Tamil Nadu politicians have recognised the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    Vaiko has written to the Indian Premier, Manmohan Singh warning him of the genocide of Tamils. He cannot later say: “I did not know”.
     
    In Sri Lanka itself, the Tamil National Alliance, have repeatedly recognised genocide and called upon International governments to act.
     
    Many Tamil media figures such as film director Seeman and Oscar and Grammy nominated musician M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) have come out to recognise genocide. Poets, artists and actors have recognised genocide.
     
    For the record, the Diaspora must then seek formal recognition of the continuing crime of genocide (as opposed to specific individual acts).
     
    Governments that refuse to acknowledge genocide (because this will require them to comply with the UN convention) may nevertheless be persuaded to recognise “Acts of genocide” as first step.
     
    The Diaspora must invoke the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and seek action against current genocide. Economic sanctions against the perpetrating government, military and travel restrictions are such actions.
     
    The Diaspora must ask that its own efforts to prevent genocide must be fully assisted by their own governments.
     
    The Tamil Diaspora has demonstrated against tremendous odds its determination to resist genocide and its overwhelming support for a Free Eelam.
     
    We toil in the face of both thinly veiled intimidation and malignant prejudice under euphemisms such as the “war on terror”.
     
    But it is the International community’s wilful refusal to prevent genocide, their obstruction of Tamil efforts to resist genocide, their willingness to benefit from the proceeds and even active collusion in it, that remains the real crime.
  • Lack of antibiotics force doctors to re-amputate patients in Vanni
    The medical care system Vanni is on the verge of complete collapse and the doctors are in deep despair due to lack of lifesaving medicines and necessary equipment required treat patients, according to the Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) in Mullaiththeevu district.
     
    Full text of the letter, dated 15 February, 2009, follows:

    Secretary
    Ministry of Health
    Suwasiripaya
    Colombo

    Dear Sir,

    Situation Report for the current week

    I am in deep despair, much same as my colleagues with me, while starting to write this letter as we have been cursed to witness yet another pathetic scene of scores of dead and injured brought to the Puthumaththalan Hospital following shelling attack at Ampalavanpokkananai, the adjoining village situated well within the new safety area. We are confused and clueless on how to confront this situation of mass causalities with bare minimum facilities available.

    Our health care system is on the verge of complete collapse with the abandoning of all the rest of temporary hospitals functioning at Udaiyarkaddu, Suthanthirapuram and Thevipuram, leaving Puthumaththalan as the only operational health facility. Being a small school building transformed into a primary surgical care unit, there is little space and poor infrastructure, hardly sufficient to provide even basic standards in emergency surgical care to the large influx of war wounded daily more than a hundred on average – sometimes as high as 200.

    Though we are working round the clock despite being physically and mentally exhausted, lack of lifesaving medicines required for surgical operations and post operative management-parenteral high potency antibiotics, anesthetics esp. Ketamine, intravenous fluids, surgical consumables and accessories – and on top of all, absence of an aseptic operation theatre, seriously affecting the outcome in many cases. We were in total frustration when we had to re-amputate the limbs at higher levels in days after initial lifesaving amputations, just because of lack of IV penicillin and other antibiotics essential to prevent fatal sepsis. If we are not going to receive at least IV antibiotics, anesthetics and surgical consumables in minimum amounts ASAP, we may not be able to provide even emergency first aid to the war wounded. Therefore, it is mandatory to maintain a stable and safe transportation service, via land or sea route, to transfer the war wounded and of course other acutely ill medical patients including obstetric and paediatric emergencies, in order to reduce high mortality and morbidity rates.

    I have to mention with pain that we have recorded at least 04 child deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases and death of 02 elders due to acute respiratory distress during this week indicating the high vulnerability of the IDPs living under most tragic conditions with out any basic amenities or adequate healthcare support. The safety area declared during this week compression of a narrow strip of coastal land approximately 10 sq km, with thick resident population now, with the additional 2 lakh IDPs taking refugee in the area, drinking Water and dispose refill we going to be problems. The preventive health services have been inadequate: The ante natal and well baby clinics are really held; EPI vaccination program’s got disturbed due to inability to maintain the vital cold chain; water and sanitation facilities are hardly sufficient and poorly supervised; acute and chronic malnutrition are very much likely soon as unemployment and starvation are the rules of time. If this situation continues further, control of communicable disease, especially water borne, may become impossible and could thus cause havoc.

    Therefore we as medical officers remain here to rescue our own people from disaster despite the risks, would like to urge you to use your good offices to support and strengthen us to deliver our noble services with dedication.

    Thanking you
    With kind regards,


    Dr.T.Varatharajan
  • HRW: SLA ‘slaughtering civilians’
    Human Rights Watch (HRW) based in New York has accused the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of ‘slaughtering’ civilians with indiscriminate shelling in its attempt to finish off the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
    HRW, in a a 45-page report published on February 19, following a two-week fact-finding mission to northern Sri Lanka, estimated 2,000 civilians have been killed and 5,000 have been injured in January alone and called on the Sri Lankan government to end its "indiscriminate artillery attacks" on civilians.
    The New York based group has criticized the Sri Lankan Government’s conduct, particularly in their handling of an estimated 36,000 civilians, who have fled the conflict zone.
    James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said: "This 'war' against civilians must stop. Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there."
    "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones ad slaughtering the civilians there." Ross added.
    The rights group also criticized the Sri Lankan Government’s conduct in its handling of an estimated 36,000 civilians, who have fled the conflict zone.
    Commenting on the treatment of internally displaced people by the Government, Ross said, “They are held by the Government in squalid military-controlled camps and hospitals with little access to the outside world”.
    “The Government seems to be trying its best to keep its role in their ordeal away from public scrutiny." Ross added.
    The HRW representative is not alone in expressing his concern over the proposed “welfare villages”, which are being enforced by the Government.
    Prominent Tamils worldwide, including India, Britain and Sri Lanka have likened these “welfare villages” to the conditions of concentration camps set up by the Nazi government during the Second World War under Hitler’s rule.
    The UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes urged the Government to ensure the camps met international standards during his visit this week.
    Holmes said, "Our concern is ... to make sure international law and principles are being fully met in the transition period before they return to their homes once military operations are over."
    However, Rights groups say the plans for these “welfare villages” violate international law and monitoring camp conditions is difficult whilst the Government insists on blocking most journalists and aid workers.
    In its report Human Rights Watch also condemned the LTTE for "increased brutality" towards trapped civilians and accused the organisation of preventing civilians from leaving the conflict zone.
    However, these unsubstantiated accusations have been dismissed by LTTE political chief B. Nadesan as “malicious propaganda”.
    In a recent interview Nadesan declared “There are 300,000 people who want to stay with us because they are confident that we are their guardians”.
  • WFP delivers Food by sea but amount only enough for a day.
    A new sea route to deliver urgently needed relief to tens of thousands of civilians people in Vanni has been opened following food convoys through land route remain suspended for more than a month. 
     
    However only a fraction of the food required is reaching the people despite rising concerns over a growing food crisis.

    As most internally displaced persons are now concentrated in a new safety zone along the eastern coastline of Mullaitheevu district, the sea route is seen as a viable alternative to reach those in need. 
     
    On Wednesday February 26, World Food Programme (WFP) transported some 40 metric tons of food - enough only to feed some 80,000 people for a single day - by sea to the government-designated safety zone in the Vanni, where approximately 300,000 internally displaced Tamils are living.
     
    The first delivery by sea was made on Wednesday 18 February. It was also a fraction of the amount needed.
     
    “Pressurised by international community, the Colombo government allowed the transportation of a meager amount of food – 30 tonnes – for a population of 300,000”, said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiruppu Political Head C. Ilamparithi, following the delivery.
     
    Calling the relief an eye-wash Ilamparithi further added: "When distributed the amount each one would be getting is 100 grams: roughly 66 grams of flour, 20 grams of Dahl and 14 grams of sugar per person".
     
    Following the deliveries by sea, Adnan Khan, WFP Representative and Country Director in Sri Lanka said: “Now the challenge is to sustain this activity and ship sufficient quantities of food to meet the needs of tens of thousands caught in the conflict,”
     
    According to WFP calculations, 40MT can only feed about 11,500 people for a week and according Khan, WFP’s goal is to deliver up to 300 metric tons of food commoditieper week by boat. s
     
    “Food assistance is urgently needed for those still trapped in the conflict zone,” Khan added.
     
    Commenting on the suspension of land route Khand said: “The security situation since 16 January has not been conducive for food convoys to go in,”
     
    “The resumption of [land] convoys will only be possible if there is a lull in the conflict, but right now that’s not happening.” Khan added.

    WFP began food convoys to the Vanni on 2 October after its relocation from Kilinochchi in the Vanni following the government banning relief agencies from operating in the conflict zone where they are most needed.

    A total of 11 WFP convoys comprising up to 60 trucks at a time continued until 16 January, when they were suspended following delays in Sri Lankan authorities granting permission and escalation in fighting that resulted in convoy personnel being trapped in the Vanni for almost a week.
  • Colombo killed 700 children in 2 months – Voice of Tigers
    Voice of Tigers, the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sunday, March 1 said Sri Lankan armed forces have killed 2,018 Tamil civilians in January and February in Vanni and that 700 of the victims were children.
     
    The VoT has been airing a program, "Bridging the beloved" (Uravup Paalam), where civilians have been providing details of their missing family members and whereabouts of the remaining members in the hope of locating their missed ones.

    Some families were reporting that children as young as 5 years of age were missing during the artillery barrage by the Sri Lanka Army while they were displacing from a location to another. The radio broadcast has become a main source of information assisting people to find their kin and kith.

    The US based Human Rights Watch, in its report issued on 20 February, have also put the civilian casualty figures at 2,000.

    Newly obtained information places total civilian casualties at 7,000, with 2,000 deaths, the HRW said.

    “During a three-week period from January 20 to February 13, 2009, independent observers in the Vanni collected information on 5,150 civilian casualties-1,123 deaths and 4,027 injuries-from the current fighting. This number was derived from a compilation of reports that recorded individual casualties, the date and place of the attack, and the nature of the attack," the HRW report stated.

    Air attacks with cluster bombs, fire bombs and artillery barrage with cluster fitted shells have been systematically deployed by the Sri Lankan forces on civilian targets.
  • MSF: Civilian situation is ‘desperate and unacceptable’
    An international medical and humanitarian aid organization has released a statement highlighting the lack of medical facilities for the civilians living in LTTE controlled Vanni and in IDP camps government controlled territories.
     
    Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a statement released on Friday, February 27 said that ‘many are injured, some with infected wounds that are weeks old and as a result, many people have been maimed for life.’ highlighting the state medical care or the lack of it for the Tamil civilians injured by the military onslaught.
     
    MSF, which has been prevented by the Sri Lankan government from entering Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administered Vanni to assist civilians since September 2008 is now operating only in government held territories.
     
    Text of full statement released by MSF follows:
     
    Médecins Sans Frontières is urgently calling on both parties in the conflict in the Vanni area in northern Sri Lanka to ensure the safety of civilians and to allow access to humanitarian assistance.
     
    In neighbouring Vavuniya, located outside the conflict zone, MSF medical teams are working with hospital staff around the clock. Ninety percent of the injuries seen are a direct result of the fighting. People are being brought to hospitals with gun-shot and shrapnel wounds. In the past two weeks, MSF has performed over 300 operations on patients who were directly wounded in the conflict and it appears this number is just the tip of the iceberg.
     
    An estimated 200,000 Sri Lankans living under desperate conditions are still trapped in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka’s north. Patients tell MSF how people are being shelled for days on end, with the dead and wounded surrounding them. There is a severe lack of medical care and not enough food and drinking water.
     
    The stories shared with MSF by those who have managed to escape make painfully clear the desperate situation inside the Vanni. People have been trapped in active conflict for weeks, hiding in bunkers they have dug themselves.
     
    A few weeks ago, for the first time in months, a significant number of civilians began emerging from the Vanni. There are now a reported 35,000 people who have managed to reach Vavuniya. They are tired, hungry, and frightened, and have no information about their family members who did not manage to escape the conflict zone.
     
    Many are injured, some with infected wounds that are weeks old. As a result, many people have been maimed for life. Even those who have made it to Vavuniya have no freedom of movement, no access to information, and no options to look for lost family members.
     
    Only a minority of the people trapped inside the Vanni have succeeded in crossing the front line to safer territory. Most remain caught between the warring parties.
     
    An additional 2,000 sick and wounded people have been transferred from the Vanni to Trincomalee by boat by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Despite the authorities efforts, the medical management of wounded people who were evacuated is becoming a major challenge.
     
    While hospitals in Trincomalee and surrounding areas were initially able to cope with the influx of wounded, some are now reaching full capacity and are in need of additional space, as well as medicine and medical materials. MSF visited several hospitals following the arrival of the first medical evacuations and is in contact with local health authorities in order to identify support that can be provided to the hospitals.
     
    As MSF has been denied access to the population trapped inside the Vanni, the organization is relying on the personal accounts of patients to highlight what is happening there.
     
    One 53-year-old woman told MSF staff how her family spent days in a bunker without food and water. Out of desperation, and despite the shelling, they left their bunker to get some food when three out of her 15 family members were killed on the spot. Her daughter was seriously wounded by shrapnel and is now in Vavuniya Hospital. Some of her relatives had to stay behind in the Vanni. She does not know whether they are still alive. This is only one example and many any people tell a similar story.
     
    MSF teams are still unable to enter the Vanni to evaluate the needs of the affected population and provide urgently needed medical care. Together with other international organizations, MSF has been denied access since September 2008.
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