Visiting Matale district, which was one of those affected by recent floods and landslides, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse promised to provide 'alternative lands' to those living in areas at risk of landslides or other natural disasters.

The President also pledged financial assistance to the 94 families affected with each receiving 50,000 rupees as well as food rations, garments etc. Those whose houses had been damaged would recieve 100,000 rupees each.

Matale is in the Sinhala heartland. But on Friday, the government's own Disaster Management Centre reported that the areas most devastated by the recent heavy rains and flooding were the Tamil areas of Batticaloa and Puttalam.

The Sri Lankan defence secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse claims that foreign and local elements are attempting to use the judiciary to destabilise the country.

Speaking at an exhibition in Kurunegala, Gota said that a conspiracy was being hatched abroad to topple his brother and president, Mahinda Rajapakse.

Gothabaya Rajapakse and Kandyan tribal dancers at the exhibition

He said that an attempt to use university teachers and students to cause unrest had failed.

“When carrying out his work the President has been faced with various challenges. Everyone knows that school children, university students, university lecturers and trade unions were used to create trouble. But because of the confidence the people had in the President the trouble makers could not achieve their goal. Today they are attempting to do it through the judiciary.

"They want to destabilise this country. We know that peace and stability is vital if a country is to develop and for tourists and investors to come here,”

Gota also stressed the importance of self-sufficiency in food, saying it is sad that goods that can be produced in Sri Lanka are imported.

“Many consumer goods that can be produced locally are imported in large quantities. Although it is hard to believe, even tamarind is imported. It is sad that we import food crops that grow well in the country. If we are self-sufficient in food, the colossal expenditure on imports can be curtailed to the barest minimum.

"The foreign exchange savings can be used for development programmes. The government provided incentives including fertiliser subsidy to the farmers regardless of the war expenditure. The most formidable challenge facing many countries is the want of food security. A country with food security will never collapse.

"Foreign elements attempted to pose a challenge to the government through the university teachers and the students, but failed. Now they are attempting to gain their end through the judiciary.”

See full address here (Singhalese).

A 4-year-old girl has been raped and strangled to death in Mandaitheevu reported the Jaffna based newspaper Uthayan.

The girl’s body was discovered dumped in a well, in Mandaitheevu 2nd division, reportedly 200m from her home. The initial post-mortem was carried out by Legal Medical officer S.Sivarooban from Jaffna Teaching hospital.

She has been identified as Suthanthini Surenthiran who was reported missing two days ago by her parents.

Addressing a meeting at a vihara, Sri Lanka’s Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena praised the country’s Maha Sangha for protecting the country during times of crisis, and called for more children to come join the Buddhist clergy.

Speaking at Malwatte in Kandy, Abeywardena applauded the Maha Sangha for saving the country, exclaiming,

"When we look at the manner certain guardians of the law behaved in society, we should be thankful that the country had been able to survive from total destruction,"

"Some others try to betray the country for the sake of personal gain. People should be vigilant and act with caution to prevent the destruction of the country, nation and religion by these sinister forces,"

Abeywardena then went on to slam slogans such as “small is beautiful”, saying they led to the downfall of the country, due to the adverse affect they had on the country’s birth rate and consequently on those joining the Buddhist clergy.

He carried on to call for more children to join the Buddhist Sangha, stating,

"This had made it difficult to find children to be ordained as samanera bhikkhus for the perpetration of the Buddhasasana at a time when a healthy and dedicated child generation was needed for the country to move forward in development and progress."

The former chief cricket writer for Australia’s The Age newspaper Trevor Grant has slammed leading Sri Lankan cricket player Kumar Sangakkara for his continued efforts to paint Sri Lanka as a ‘haven of peace and tranquility’.

See below for selected extracts of his article ‘Sangakkara, batsman and propagandist extraordinaire’.

Leading Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara is currently in Australia to play cricket but he also appears to be auditioning for a job in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s propaganda unit.

As he did on the England tour last year, Sangakkara takes every opportunity in Australia to suggest that his homeland has become a haven of peace and tranquility.

He did so again this week when sending a message to the protesters who plan to gather at the MCG on Boxing Day, calling for an Australian cricket boycott on future tours and matches against Sri Lanka.

“We are mature enough not to take these things personally. This (cricket tour) is one area they are trying to use to further their agenda. For us sports is beyond politics. We are ambassadors for our country,” Sangakkara said.

A Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Mal Bala, said Sangakkara’s view of the country came from his tunnel vision as a member of the well-off Sinhalese community who was educated at an elite private school, Trinity College in Kandy.

“For us,” said Sangakkara, “it’s about showing the world what Sri Lanka is like now. People from outside should really come back and visit. If you don’t see what’s happening on the ground it’s hard to change your opinion.”

A few requests for Sangakkara, then, before we agree to head off on a trip.

Could you arrange a trip for us to all the detention centres in the country, where torture and other abuses remain a regular feature of daily life for imprisoned Tamils?

We guess that might be a bit difficult, given that the UN Human Rights Council was given a flat “no” from the Government six weeks ago when it asked Sri Lanka to allow the International Red Cross to visit detention centres. But surely a man of Sangakkara’s connections could pull a few strings?

Could he also take us to the main Colombo police station to see how the investigation into the murder of the Sunday Leader newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrametunge, is coming along?

While we are at the police station maybe we can check on the investigations into the other 30 or so journalists who have been killed or “disappeared” in the past few years. Surely the men on the beat must have a few leads by now? They haven’t? Ah well, I suppose policing is a tough business these days.

After we wrap things up in Colombo, could we head north? We’d like to go to Mullivaikal, where thousands of innocent Tamils were slaughtered in 2009 and now lie in mass graves. That is, of course, if the bodies haven’t disappeared, due to the Army using acid to cover up their war crimes.

Maybe, also, we could see the site of the town’s hospital, which became a pile of rubble after the Army mortar bombs and artillery had targeted it and killed at least 70 people in one hit.

Then, seeing as we are in the area, could we also visit the prison in which several Jaffna University students were lodged recently after being declared terrorists for lighting candles to commemorate the Tamil war dead ?

Finally, there’s one last thing to organise, and we are off.

We’ve got a few Tamil refugees here who wouldn’t mind having look at the old country as well. Could we bring them along ? We reckon it would be nice for them to see their old friends and families, if they haven’t been locked up.

The trouble is they keep saying if they went back it would be a rather limited tour, something about a “white van” trip between the airport and the torture chamber at Negombo prison.

It wouldn’t be like that, Kumar, would it?

British Tamils continue to be held in Sri Lankan jails without charge under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, despite pleas from parents to transfer them to British prisons if found guilty of any crime.

The renewed plea comes as TNA MP Suresh Premachandran’s appeals to Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem were batted away, with Hakeem responding that the British Foreign Office had to approach the Sri Lankan government over the issue of any potential transfers.

Although the exact number of Tamils who hold British passports being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act is unknown, the case of one man Viswalingam Gopithas from South London who has been held for over 5 years without charge was highlighted by the Guardian in 2011 (See here).

Also see a video on his case by Radio Netherlands Worldwide here.

See our earlier post: British Tamils held in Sri Lanka without charge (18 September 2011)

Heavy rains that began on 16th December have had a devastating effect on the North-East, with Batticaloa and Puttalam the worst affected, said IRIN on Friday.

The rains and ensuing floods have displaced at least 31,000 people and killed 39, according to the Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre.

“The worst-hit are Batticaloa and Puttalam districts. The rains are still prevalent and we might see the damage rising,” DMC's assistant director told IRIN.

The Sri Lankan president Mahinda rajapakse has offered the services of a Sri Lankan doctor to ailing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, saying that the doctor will be “significantly instrumenta” to his recovery.

In a letter to President Chavez, Rajapakse said the government and the people of Sri Lanka are praying for his well being.

See extracts from letter:

“I have learnt that you are currently undergoing medical treatment in the Republic of Cuba and wish to convey my sincere good wishes for your early recovery.

“While the prayers and good wishes of the people of Venezuela and those of your friends throughout the world, including Sri Lanka, will undoubtedly aid your speedy recovery, I wish to offer to your Excellency the expertise of a doctor from my country who, I believe, will be significantly instrumental in the early restoration of your good health.

“In the meantime, the Government and people of Sri Lanka join me in continuing to hope and pray for your Excellency’s well-being.”

“It is interesting that Jayasekara is being put forward as the Sri Lankan representative in Australia to defend the indefensible, an acknowledgement that the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Thisara Samarasinghe, has singularly failed to get his message across.”

”Australians are quite used to weighing the facts, they saw through the propaganda of the South African apartheid regime, the lies over East Timor and weapons of mass destruction and it is only a matter of time before the truth will out on the treatment of Tamils and the political enemies of the corrupt Rajapaksa regime.”

”The Sri Lankan flag has a sword-bearing Sinhalese lion. Attempts, after independence, to adopt a flag with neutral symbols were rejected by the Sinhalese majority. Instead two ribbons were added to represent minority Tamils and Muslims. With the advent of the civil war the Tamils adopted a tiger as their symbol and the Sinhalese army, the lion.”

“Jayasekara would have us believe that Tamils fought (as terrorists) to divide Sri Lanka. What he conveniently fails to mention is that what occurred was a civil war fought because the Sinhalese refused to share power on the departure of the British. Tamil protest eventually turned Sinhalese exclusionary policies into genocide, which erupted in a blood bath in Colombo in 1983.”

“Many fled to the north and were subsequently forced to defend themselves from the army. The Sinhalese fear and hate the Tamils, hence the belief that Tamils are reorganising overseas for another civil war. It may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy if the Sinhalese continue to deny their rights.”

”What Jayasakera does not mention is Sri Lanka's appalling human rights record, where young Tamils have been abducted and murdered. Forty Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered over the past 10 years for reporting state-sponsored corruption and abuse of human rights.”

“The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs is well aware of the nature of government in Sri Lanka. However the Australian government has been prepared to gloss over these abuses and in its own treatment of Tamil asylum seekers has now transgressed accepted human rights.”

“In September 2012, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, warned that he may refuse to attend the November 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, unless the Rajapaksa government addresses allegations of Sinhalese atrocities during the closing stages of the civil war.”

”Jayasekara seeks to deceive because, with hubris and ignorance, he thinks we know little beyond what he writes. He should take pause and think again.”

 

The president of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, has received a summons by the Terrorism Investigation Division of Vavuniya and a note written entirely in Sinhalese, instructing him to present himself at the TID office on 29th December at 11am.

The TNPF leader is reported to be outside the island at present.

Leaflets in Sinhala and English have been circulated around the south of the island highlighting the TNPF secretary, Selvaraja Kajendran, as part of the 'pro LTTE And TNA/TNPF network in Jaffna University', reports TamilNet.

See here for photograph of the leaflet.

Several hundred Australians gathered outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground to protest against Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of Australia, calling on cricketing authorities to boycott the country.

Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Boycott Sri Lanka” hundreds of Australians assembled outside the MCG ground while Australia took on Sri Lanka on Day one of the traditional Boxing Day Test Match. Armed with red and yellow balloons, banners and thousands of leaflets (see here), protestors fanned out across every entrance to the stadium.

In addition, a truck adorned with a sign saying "Cricket can't hide Tamil genocide" had been circling the venue and around Melbourne’s bustling central business district.

Former cricket writer for The Age and boycott advocate Trevor Grant told reporters,

“In 2007 Australia didn’t go on tour [to Zimbabwe] mainly for security reasons, but John Howard called Mugabe a grubby dictator and said that cricket would give him the oxygen that he didn’t deserve. There is very much a disparity between the treatment of Sri Lanka and of Zimbabwe.”

“What we are asking for is Cricket Australia and the Australian government to halt future matches and torus against Sri Lanka until the Rajapaksa regime agrees to an independent investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and stops the persecution of Tamils which is sending refugees to Australia.”

Speaking at the protest, Grant said,

“We gave out 7000 leaflets in two hours and had brilliant banners, covering about 10 diffferent locations. We had a truck with an A-frame displaying "Cricket can't hide Tamil genocide" signs driving around the CBD. We were able to make strong speeches --on a brilliantly-loud and clear PA -- that thousands of cricket-goers could not ignore as they queued to get in to the ground.”

“We have laid the foundation for making Tamil persecution a significant issue in the minds of Australians. We plan to come out again during January when Sri Lanka play in the one day and 20/20 matches. We also plan to keep up the pressure via global links whenever Sri Lanka play cricket around the world. It's now been done in England and Australian on successive Sri Lankan cricket tours.”

"We also have to think about CHOGM next year in Sri Lanka. Slithering snake-in-the-grass Bob Carr announced on his recent trip to Colombo that Australia would help Rajapaksa with advice on how to run CHOGM. Excuse me, while I reach for the sick bag."

A representative from the Tamil Refugee Council also spoke saying,

"Currently, there are endless accounts of sexual assaults by Sinhalese troops, these have dominated accounts of human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government. Tamils in North and East have lost their land, they have no real place to call home. Much of the areas they once called home have now been taken over by the military. Sri Lankan Army occupying Tamil Eelam has not even let the University students alone, arresting them under terrorism laws.

While these abuses are taking place in the North and East, Mahinda Rajapakse, his brothers, his family and his supporters uses cricket to launder its image.
We as cricket lovers should not allow this.

We should not allow any regime brazenly abusing human rights with impunity, a role in international sport. We as cricket lovers, should not allow Rajapakse and his supporters to use cricket to get away with war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Also see our earlier posts:

Australian calls to boycott Sri Lankan cricket grow (11 December 2012)
Boycott of cricket tour debated on Australian radio (13 December 2012)
Boycott Sri Lanka cricket campaign gains more supporters (23 December 2012)

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division arrested 45 former LTTE cadres, it was announced on Wednesday.

The arrests occurred as part of search operations in Jaffna reported Sri Lanka’s police.
Superintendent Prishantha Jayakodi stated that,

“They were arrested as a result of operations carried out over the last month,”

The arrests comes as part of an increased clampdown on Jaffna,  which has seen students from Jaffna University amongst those detained by Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division.

Earlier this month there was a further spate of arrests of former cadres, with over 40 reported to have been abducted within a week. See the report from TamilNet here.